Harry Potter - Spider-Man: Broken Web
by PotterAndMatrixFan
Summary: Around six months after getting his powers and indirectly causing the death of his uncle, Harry Potter finds himself awaiting his sixth year at Hogwarts. While battling with his personal life, and foes alike, Harry has to understand the meaning of great responsibility.
1. Prologue - The Fall

**INTRODUCTION -** ** _PLEASE READ_**

 ** _Don't be intimidated by the amount of chapters, they are all quite short._**

 **Hello, this is the first serious fan fiction I've ever uploaded to the internet. I've written numerous of Harry Potter fanfics in the past - all of them in my native language - but never once uploaded them (only 1 that was horrible). I wrote Harry Potter fanfics for over 10 years in several genres; post-apocalypse (lots of zombie stories), romance, action, you name it. But it was always the same base premise: Harry and Hermione were together. In EVERY story.**

 **Because of this I have become a bit uninspired. If the writing suddenly seem slow or rushed, or words repeat, that's one of the reasons it is like that. My English grammar also sucks in places. This is the first story from start to end that I've written in English. But these aren't excuses for my story telling, I'm just stating facts.**

 **So please enjoy, true believers.**

It all went in slow-motion.

Everything came collapsing down. The debris flew right past him as he fell. He desperately reached out for her. He was panicking, and he saw the shock in her eyes while the ground drew closer.

He knew somewhere deep inside, that she wouldn't make it out of this.

With his line of web, he shot out a line towards her and let out a noiseless scream behind the mask.

It had to catch her, it had to catch her, please God let it catch her.

As they kept falling, he wondered if this is how it felt to be dying, seeing someone you love plunge down towards certain doom, everything you cared for being ripped away in an instant.

He felt the web connect, and without hesitating, he completely emptied the other cartridge to halt their movement.

Her body hit the ground with a thud. Quietly he dropped down beside her.

She didn't move. It felt like his heart had stopped when his mind told him she could very well be dead.

Shaking, he got her down from the web and fell down on his knees with her head in his lap.

She didn't breathe, she didn't move. No pulse, nothing. Her neck was broken. He had killed her.

Behind the mask he started to cry.

In anger he threw the mask on the floor and held her face closely towards his chest, shaking violently with tears bursting. He didn't know what to do.

She was dead because of him. She was _dead_ because of _him_. Him and his idiotic actions had caused this. _She was dead because of him_.

The words rang in his head and it only made him angrier. A loud maniacal cackling echoed down the tower walls.

He stopped crying and looked up above him. The cackling sounded again and it drew closer. No.

He put her gently down on the ground, grabbed his mask and stood up.

No, this was all that murdering maniacs fault. And he was going to pay.


	2. Chapter 1 – I'm Spider-Man

_Several months earlier._

Harry was leaning towards the window, and staring out over London's streets. It was in the middle of summer. It had been about six months since his uncle had died out there, in the middle of the snowy road. Shot down in cold blood.

By a Muggle.

His uncle, Sirius – a well-trained wizard – murdered by a Muggle. Of course Sirius had been unarmed, not expecting the sudden robbery of his car.

Sirius had taught him the most valuable lesson in the world, something he would never forget as he held his dying uncle's hand.

He told him that, with great power comes great responsibility. With his final breath, he told him to protect his aunt and his friends – no matter what.

Harry didn't remember the exact words, it was all so blurry, but to this day he had lived up to his uncle's last dying wish.

He was something people would call a freak, an idiot risking his life for others wearing a pajamas – maybe a little bit of both. He had a burden, others would call it a gift.

Through a mysterious spider-bite he had gotten this gift, giving him the ability to do whatever a spider does.

It was enough of a burden to be "The Boy Who Lived", but now he also carried the name "Spider-Man".

Spider-Man, the freak who saved people from burning buildings and stopped random crooks on the street. Spider-Man, the fifteen year old boy who saved the day and never got any credit for it.

Spider-Man, who always got the blame.

Oh boy, maybe he could change that nickname to "Spider-Fail" instead?

He almost looked forward returning to Hogwarts, where a superhero had nothing to do and nobody to save, just sitting up on a tower all day on his butt, brooding.

Of course, if he got that bored he would be forced to take the Floo Network in Hogsmeade or something back to London. There's no way he would swing his way all the way over and wasting web-fluid doing so.

Besides, there would be nothing to swing from.

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted.

"Harry, you got yourself a visitor", his aunt Petunia called.

He wasn't expecting any visitors until much later.

"Right now?" Harry shout over his shoulder.

"Yes, right now! I'm not your handmaid, sometimes you have to answer the door yourself!" she shouted back.

Harry sighed and got away from the window. He was just about to open his door but hesitated when he heard a man's voice just outside.

"This place looks very cozy. Have you ever tried to apply as an interior designer?"

That didn't sound like anyone Harry knew. He slowly pulled back from the door.

Aunt Petunia laughed.

"Gods no, I don't think that kind of work would fit me", she said.

"Oh? That's a shame, because I am in desperate need of someone talented", the man said. "It pays well. My home looks like a pig farm compared to this."

She laughed yet again.

"You got a husband or something? This place seems too small for three people", the man asked.

"No… no. We moved here when my husband passed for a couple of months ago."

"Oh, my bad. I didn't mean to bring it up. I'm so very sorry for your loss."

Maybe this wasn't so bad. Harry forced his hand to the door handle. The man didn't sound like he was from the police, but then again he could be wrong.

If he was wrong, he could just swing away out through the window. Yeah, no problem.

Unless he got shot first.

Reluctantly he opened the door, and there stood aunt Petunia and a middle-age man in a black clean suit and a pair of squared sunglasses with a slight red tint to them.

The man looked at him with a surprised expression.

"Who's this?" Harry asked and looked at aunt Petunia.

"Who's this?" the man repeated with a chuckle. "Christ, don't they teach you kids anything in school nowadays about manners?"

Harry felt both confused and irritated at the same time.

"I'm Tony", the man said and reached out his hand towards Harry.

Harry shook his hand.

"Harry."

Tony put his hands in his pockets and slowly nodded.

"Yeah, I know who you are. We all do", he added with a smirk. "I'm pretty sure you know why I'm here, Harry."

Harry looked at aunt Petunia, and then back at Tony. He had absolutely no idea what this man was doing in their apartment.

"Remind me again. Sorry, I forgot", he said.

Tony sighed.

"Teenagers – they never change", Tony shook his head. "Well, to remind you: I have come here to give you some special information about the new school term. I prefer face to face, if you know what I mean. It's a private school after all, right?"

Harry slowly nodded, accepting this lie they had to tell aunt Petunia. He had no idea who the man was, but he certainly wasn't here to talk about the new term at Hogwarts – he didn't look the wizard part either, more like the overly rich jerk kind of Muggle.

"We can talk more in your room. Your room is right here?" Tony asked and nodded towards Harry's room.

"Yeah. Yeah, it's here", he quickly said.

"Tell me if you want me to make you some coffee, or maybe tea?" Petunia asked.

"Nah, I'm good. I had about four espressos on the way here. Thanks for asking, though", Tony gave her a quick smile.

Harry and Tony went into Harry's room, and shut the door behind them.

"This looks awfully clean", Tony said suspiciously. "You were expecting me?"

Harry stood in front of the window, in case this guy would pull out a taser or something even worse.

"No. Why would I?" he said, trying to keep his cool.

Tony looked at him like he tried to figure out what kind of secrets he was hiding from him.

"It's that girl, isn't it?" a big grin spread across Tony's face. "Hermone? Hemine? I'm sorry, I can't pronounce it."

"Yes, _Hermione_ ", Harry mumbled.

"Right."

Tony looked around his room and spotted a photo of him and Hermione beside the bed before looking back at him.

"She's cute. But we aren't here to speak about girls, Harry. Neither are we here to speak about your school that… apparently doesn't exist. We are here to speak about your little… shall we call it: swinging around?"

Harry tried to act like he didn't know what he was talking about.

"I have no idea what you are talking about."

"C'mon, of course you do! You have been living these past months outside the law, throwing yourself between buildings and risking your life for people that probably hated you in the first place."

Harry gave him a glance.

"I don't know what you mean."

Tony tapped his wristwatch a couple of times and a video projected itself on thin air. The video showed a masked man swinging down a street after a car and webbing it up between two buildings.

"That's you, right there", he said and paused the video with the masked man in frame. " _You_ swinging down the street and catching a couple of crooks – in a onesie."

"Are you sure? Because if I was that guy I wouldn't be able to go to school."

Tony grinned.

"But you aren't in school during the summer, are you? This little stunt you pulled off went viral last week. The media knows about it, the government does, you friends probably knows, I do – duh – who knows, maybe your auntie caught a glimpse of your monkey business?"

Harry scoffed.

"Okay, fine. What are you going to do – arrest me?"

Tony started to walk around the room, checking out every detail of it. Harry slowly moved his fingers towards the web-shooter's trigger.

Tony glanced over all the framed photos on Harry's wall.

"Nice friends, pretty girl, the nicest aunt I've ever met… and then there's the boy with spider-powers that goes to a school that doesn't exist in any records whatsoever", Tony looked at Harry over his sunglasses. "Something doesn't add up. What's your story, huh? Sit down, no need to web me to a wall. I'm not going to arrest you, in that case you would be knocked out already and locked up in prison."

Harry slowly sat down on his bed, Tony sat down beside him.

"You know", Tony took off his sunglasses and put them into a pocket, "there's a lot of people like you. Yeah, shocking I know. Some of them are my best pals – some of them wants me six feet down in the dirt. Let's keep this simple: who are you and what do you do out there?"

Harry didn't know what to answer.

"I… I don't know. I just _do_ it because… I don't know", he answered, a bit confused over the question.

Tony slightly rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Wrong answer. You do it because you…"

"Because I think it's right", Harry interrupted.

"You know – don't interrupt me. Because you _know_ it's right. What would ordinary people do when there's things happening beyond their control? What would they do when things go really nuts? Nothing. There would be mass casualties in the streets, there might be entire cities getting leveled. But with us out there, we can prevent that. We aren't always praised, we sure as hell don't get paid, but we keep doing…"

With a bang the attic hatch slammed down and revealed Harry's suit dangling down a rope.

"Oh look, we got another guest", said Tony.

Immediately Harry moved from his seat and tossed the suit up again and webbed the hatch shut.

"I thought you were faster", Tony grinned wide, he looked very amused. "But why the attic? You don't want your aunt to know?"

"No! She can't know."

"Why not? She seems harmless."

"Harmless?" Harry laughed. "If she found out I'm risking my life out there she would freak out. Then she would be anything else but harmless!"

Tony cleared his throat and slowly nodded.

"Alright, so I can't tell her right now?"

"I will throw you out of the window if you do that."

Tony chuckled.

"You can try, kid. Either you are able to throw me out of the window or your nice aunt will ground you for the rest of your life."

A short silent moment passed.

"So, have we calmed down yet?" Tony asked.

Harry still felt a bit mad at him but regardless he sat himself down again, facing towards him.

"Anyways, I can offer you much better gear and maybe, just maybe you won't get killed as easily. Of course, you're going to have to provide a bit more for me", Tony leaned forwards.

Harry chuckled.

"You want money?"

"No no no, no money. I just need to know why you think living like this is the right choice."

There was no sign of greed in Tony's eyes, no sign that he was willing to trick a teenager of the few resources he had at his disposal.

"Why would you save people and get almost nothing out of it, when you could earn millions in TV. You could get your own show, movies, comic books – do they still make those? You get the idea. You could be rich, you could…"

"I have no interest in money", Harry abruptly interrupted.

Tony looked a bit shocked and stared at him like he was completely mental

"Wow, okay. Maybe something else – is it the rush? I could imagine throwing yourself from building to building at a remarkable speed head first must be one hell of an adrenaline rush."

"No. I…" Harry sighed. "I lost my uncle. He was murdered because of me. I got mad at him one night for something stupid, we fought and then I ran away. He drove his car all over London just because of me. And then he got murdered because I made him chase after me."

Harry took a short break – the emotions were too much to handle and he was afraid he was going to be having trouble speaking in front of this stranger. He refused to make eye contact and instead he tried to focus on the wall behind him.

"He made me who I am, what I do. I will never forget that."

Tony nodded.

"I understand. It must have been really though for you. However, you seem to be doing okay in my eyes, and what do you mean he made _who_ you are? Did his passing affect you in such a way?"

"He told me the words he lived by: with great power comes great responsibility. He didn't mean it literally, but you know…" Harry sighed.

Tony put his sunglasses back on.

"Alright, time for the one-million dollar – or whatever you use here in England – question", Tony fixed his eyes into Harry's. "You told me your uncle made who you are. _Who_ are you then, Harry?"

Harry looked at back him, right into his eyes.

"I'm Spider-Man."

 **AUTHORS END NOTES:**

 **Yeah, okay. I know what you're thinking. Sirius Black hooked up with Petunia Evans? "Sirius and Petunia? Are you Sirius?" But yes, it was essential to the plot. Originally I was planning to use Vernon but I can't see him as the father figure for Harry. I didn't want to pair them, but in my story they are the uncle and aunt Harry came to love as parents.**

 **To clear some things up, Harry got his powers during his fifth year, Sirius died that winter. Everything prior to Harry getting his powers were essentially the same (Voldemort killing his parents, Lupin teaching him Expecto Patronum and so on). Sirius dying this early changes things drastically.**


	3. Chapter 2 - A Spider's Web

"He did _what_?" Hermione exclaimed.

Harry and Hermione sat in Harry's room on his bed – a couple of hours after Tony had left.

"He wanted to invite me to some group called the Avengers", Harry said. "But apparently you have to be eighteen to participate or something."

"So he knows everything? He knows about your heroics, about me, your parents…?"

"Yep. He knows."

"Brilliant", Hermione looked like she just had gotten a failing grade, and proceeded to look out the window.

Harry put his hand on her shoulder. "Hey, it's not as bad as it sounds like."

"Yeah, I'm sure", she shook her head.

"He was actually very impressed how you made my web-shooters, and from my experience it's hard to impress on rich jerks like that."

She looked a bit embarrassed but smiled.

"Yes thank you, Harry, you're welcome."

"No I'm serious. He didn't believe it when I told him."

She didn't answer, but instead she just smiled and moved closer to him.

"You're lucky to have me then, right? I have prevented you to become London street jam", she put her arms around his neck.

Harry grinned.

"Yeah, you have."

He looked into her eyes for a while, until she slowly moved her lips towards his.

The sudden sound of police sirens caught Harry off guard and made him pull away from the kiss.

Hermione looked confused at him.

"What?"

Harry sighed.

"Police sirens", he mumbled.

"Oh."

"They can wait."

She gave him an encouraging smile.

"No, you go. They need you more than I do."

"That's not true."

He gave her a quick kiss before he got up and dressed up in the costume.

"You will be back soon, right?"

"Before you know it", he smiled behind the mask.

"And don't break any bones this time, or ruin the suit."

Harry shrugged. "You know me." He jumped out of the open window and flew right down towards the street at a neck breaking speed.

With the fling of a wrist, he shot a web up towards the sky that attached itself to a building. The web slightly bounced back as it pulled his weight. With a loud yell, he accelerated himself away from the web and were thrown high up into the air.

Wind rushed past his face at an incredible speed. His heart raced from the excitement. All of his instincts picked up everything around him – from buildings close to him to what was going on down the street.

Even up at this height he could hear the sirens were blaring down on the street, there were at least a dozen of police cars chasing after what seemed to be the criminals.

"Okay, let's see…" he did a sharp turn around a tall building as he slowly started to descend towards street level. "Two trucks, one armored car – easy. Unless they have guns, that'll complicate things. What am I saying, of course they got guns!"

Once again, he got some more air and this time he landed on one of the trucks. Quickly he webbed up the windshield.

The thugs inside said something in a language he didn't understand.

"Hiya, fellas", he stuck in his head down in front of the driver's side window. "You are exceeding the speed limit. Driver's license, please?"

The men shouted something to each other, yet again in an unintelligible language.

"Sorry, I don't speak nonsense."

A rifle was immediately pointed him, but he quickly webbed it and threw it away.

"Now, now. I asked for your license, not violence."

The driver threw a punch at him that he easily dodged. They were desperately trying to shake him, but they didn't know he could stick to any surface.

"You don't want to co-operate? Fine!"

However, before he could do anything, his spidersense caught something. Was someone shooting at him?

No – they were heading straight towards a bus. It was filled with people and he only had seconds to act. He couldn't get them all out in time, so there was only thing to do.

"Oh, for crying out…"

With a loud bang the truck collided with the bus so hard, it was knocked over.

In that same moment, Harry threw himself up in the air, estimating where the bus would land.

He caught it just in time, using all his strength to hold the bus up. A couple of windows broke as they smashed into the ground, the bus pushed him down the street a fair bit until it finally came to a grinding halt.

It was heavier than he had anticipated: his arms were trembling under the weight and he could swear they would give away any second if he didn't let go.

It was still a bit to the ground, so he slowly began to put the bus down. A police officer came running to him from his car.

Great, that's exactly what he needed.

"Hey! You in the suit, you're under arrest!"

"Sorry officer, gotta run!" the bus touched the ground and immediately he swung away after the crooks. "Alright, where are my greatest fans at…"

He let his senses do all the work, and there they were – still driving at a high speed a bit ahead of him. They were heading straight forward from the looks of it.

He had an idea. A crazy one, but it would certainly stop them in their tracks. Within seconds he had caught up to them and was right above them.

"Oi, fellas! I thought we could talk about that driver's license. You know – those that aren't fake?"

One of the guys aimed for him and fired.

Nope, time for plan B.

He dodged as efficiently as possible, landed on one of the walls and ran on it until he had an opening to land on the truck. Something in his side was stinging, a quick look and he noticed he had been hit.

A kick to the face was all it took the thug to drop his gun into the street.

"That's for shooting at me!"

Harry attached a web to him, and the other end at the side of a building. "And that's for being a pain in the butt!"

The thug screamed as he was yanked backwards from his seat, towards the building.

"Well, that's the shooter. Now, the grand finale."

He webbed the driver's face, grabbed the wheel and drove it straight into a tree. He jumped off and landed on top of the other.

"Hello. You still got that decoration I gave you for your windshield. I know right, it looks great!"

The men were obviously desperate to get rid of him, as they crashed into nearly everything in an attempt to lose him.

"Okay, enough laughs."

He webbed both men up and the truck's tires – it eventually came to a complete stop. He noticed the dead silence, which must mean the police had stopped their cars.

To avoid any further conflicts with them, he swung to a safe distance away and witnessed the scene from a rooftop.

"Well that worked out", he yawned and stretched.

But the armored car was nowhere to be seen. If he just had been a little faster, maybe he could have caught them all. But now he was too late and they probably had gotten away with millions worth in cash.

And that bullet stinging in his side didn't help at all. He often managed to dodge most that got thrown his way, but today he had slipped up. Maybe he was getting rusty, probably needed a long vacation before he was back in action.

"What did I tell you?" Hermione sighed while cleaning his wound.

"Hey, I messed up. It happens; it's not a big deal – ow!"

"You're sure? Because I think a bullet to your lungs could be a big deal."

"Well, lucky me it missed."

She shook her head.

"With a couple of inches."

"It still missed."

She looked at him with a firm gaze.

"It's not a game, Harry. Maybe to you it is, but to me it's not."

Harry chuckled.

"I know that."

"Why are you acting like it's something you can use to escape from reality with, then? I never liked the idea of you putting your life in danger like this. But what can I do to stop you? Every time you return it's with a bruise or a wound."

"I'll get better."

Hermione sighed, and put a blood-soaked hand on his chin.

"I know this means a lot to you. But if you keep going like this, you will sooner or later end up dead. Sirius wouldn't like the idea of you doing this as much as I do, but he wouldn't stop you because he would understand. So please, Harry, try to avoid getting shot in the future."

Harry nodded.

"It's not that easy, but I'll try. To be honest, I was… a little careless out there for my own good. Almost got squashed by a bus, several people waving their guns at me…"

"And that's the kind of thing that will get you killed. I'm not telling you to stop doing this, Harry. Just try to think twice before you do something."

"Yeah, yeah I got it."

She didn't look very convinced.

After she had sewed his wound and bandaged it, they went out to the kitchen for something to eat.

Thought aunt Petunia were already on the case; it smelled of chicken in the entire apartment. The table was already set with aunt Petunia's nicest plates and cutlery and made it look like this was some big family dinner.

It was only the third time Hermione had been here, and aunt Petunia acted as if it was a great family reunion.

They sat down around the table and waited.

"I hope you kids like chicken balti with rice. It's nothing special, but I hope it'll do", Petunia sighed. "If only Harry had told me earlier that you were coming, Hermione."

Hermione gave Harry a look.

"I thought I did tell you at least a couple of times this week", Harry said, confused.

"You told me to get the ice-cream for when she was coming here, yes. Not a single word about what day or time."

"Oh", Harry frowned his head in an attempt to remember that. "I've been busy. With… keeping my room clean?"

Hermione gave away a contained laughter.

Aunt Petunia looked at him over her shoulder, with an even bigger smile.

"You, cleaning your room? I would love to see that day", she said with a clucking laugh.

"Yeah, I wanted to keep the room clean."

"The whole week?"

"Yeah."

Hermione sighed with a smile.

 **AUTHORS END NOTES**

 **I never were good at writing fights, therefore they may seem forced or uninteresting but I try my hardest. I've written fights in the past, but never at this level.**

 **As for Harry being injured, I wanted to make it clear that he's still human. His bones will break, he will get shot - but that's what this story is about: an inexperienced Spider-Man. He still doesn't have full grasp of his powers.**


	4. Chapter 3 - With Great Power

In the middle of the night Harry finally decided to return home from tonight's crime fighting. It was raining, and his costume was soaking wet.

Tired and wet he climbed in through the window and landed on the floor with a wet thud. He was freezing, probably caught a cold or something worse.

Shaking with cold, he shut the window. He seriously had to drag an umbrella or something out with him next time.

Hermione was sleeping soundly in his bed, so at least that's good. He didn't like the first time she was here and waited half the night for him, worried sick over where he had gone off to.

He looked down at her and felt bad for all the pain he had put her through.

She didn't deserve this. She deserved someone better, someone who could constantly be there and care for her.

He'd thought he was happy, but in fact he wasn't. Seeing her being affected by his actions like this, it hurt him. Like today when he got shot.

But he couldn't stop being Spider-Man, he could also not stop being with Hermione.

"How long have you been away?" she suddenly mumbled.

Harry winced, not expecting her to be awake.

"Since ten – maybe four hours?" he said behind the wet mask. "What does it matter?"

She pulled herself up in a sitting position and looked at him.

"What? I can't hear you behind that thing", she turned on one of the lights. "For goodness sake… your costume is drenched!"

Harry pulled off his mask and threw it on the floor.

"Yeah, I noticed", he sneezed loudly.

"Take that thing off and come to bed before you freeze to death."

Harry fell down the floor close to the bed, beaten to exhaustion by tonight's events.

"Harry, what happened?" Hermione asked.

She sat straight up and her facial expression was filled with fright. She had no idea, did she? What he just had been through. He almost killed someone tonight, even if that person had committed a crime.

"I…" Harry swallowed and sighed.

"Have you been crying?" she looked at him with genuine worry right now.

"No", he mumbled. "No… yes, I mean. Yes, I almost killed someone."

"My God."

"Yeah, he… he didn't look much older than myself. He was just a kid, and I… didn't hold back. I was too into it, I couldn't stop, and I kept beating him."

Hermione had frozen and looked at him with wide eyes.

"I was _so_ angry. It wasn't me but yet I felt conscious, like I could feel every blow I landed. I got him to a hospital, he should be okay. So yeah, that might explain why I took so long. I couldn't come back here so soon after it happened, I needed some air."

Hermione put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"You should come to bed."

"Yeah."

He got out of the drenched costume, hid it on its usual place, and took out his eye contacts before joining Hermione under the warm and comforting cover. But Harry wasn't in mood for sleeping. All he could think of was how he almost straight up murdered someone.

Hermione looked at him with a drowsy gaze.

"We talk about it in the morning, Harry. Just try to get some sleep."

Harry had a hard time sleeping, woke up in cold sweat for what felt like every other hour until he finally passed out.

Harry woke up about two o'clock in the afternoon with a slight headache; he wasn't used to sleeping for this long.

He got in some new clothes and tiredly stumbled his way out to the kitchen. By the table Hermione was actively talking to aunt Petunia, both taking a cup of tea. They were both laughing, and somehow he knew they talked about him.

"Oh, there you are Harry", Petunia said. "I'm working overnight at the hospital, so you kids have to get your own dinner together."

"Yeah, yeah. Sure", Harry mumbled while he filled a bowl with cereal and milk.

"And no hanky-panky partying while I'm gone or I'm going to hear of it later."

Harry forced a smile upon his tired face. "No hanky without the panky?" he sat down at the table.

Hermione rolled her eyes.

Aunt Petunia sighed. "You get the idea. No friends invited over, no breaking the furniture, no irresponsible drinking, and the list goes on."

"But Hermione is my friend, and she's here", said Harry.

"Don't be a smart-ass with me, young man", said aunt Petunia, but she smiled. "You know the rules in this household. I'm leaving you with everything we got – like your uncle used to say: with…"

"With great power comes great responsibility, yeah. I know."

A dead silence followed. Aunt Petunia seemed to be in a small chock after hearing those words again.

Harry and Hermione exchanged glances, Harry shrugged lightly.

"Anyway", Aunt Petunia cleared her throat and took a sip of tea. "You two have lots to do while I'm gone – I've made sure of that."

Harry raised his eyebrows. "Like what, laundry?"

"Among other things…"

"Sure."

Aunt Petunia frowned and looked at him in confusion.

"You usually don't do laundry without a fight. Did something happen?"

Harry scoffed and looked up from his bowl of cereal.

"No? Why?"

"It's just strange. You always come up with some sort of excuse to skip doing the laundry. Is there something wrong?"

Hermione quickly saved him. "He just had a bad dream, that's all."

"About laundry?" a small smile was growing over aunt Petunias lips.

Harry sighed. "No, it's nothing really…"

Aunt Petunia glanced up at the clock on the wall and sighed. "Well, I'm afraid I must go now if I don't want to miss the train. Remember to lock the door before you two go to sleep and no parties."

"No parties", Harry confirmed.

Aunt Petunia got out of her chair. "There's a list of chores for you two to do, so you don't go cuddling all day", she winked at Harry before she quickly ran off.

When they finally were left alone, Harry shook his head.

"What did you tell her this time, Hermione?"

Hermione looked innocent. "Nothing. We just had a talk."

"About me?"

Hermione playfully avoided his look.

"What?" he raised his eyebrows.

"She heard us last night. According to her, we were very noisy."

Harry forgot these walls where paper-thin.

"We were just watching a movie. What did she expect?" Harry gave a half-hearted chuckle.

"She heard the other part too. I could barely look her in the eye after she said what she heard. I thought you said she were sleeping at that time."

"What did you tell her?"

"The truth. That we had some time for ourselves."

Harry got a small heart attack. "Did she hear me coming in through the window? I mean, it was a loud thump."

"No, you got here pretty late."

"Okay, good."

But he was still upset over the fact that aunt Petunia had in a sense caught them in the middle of the act. She would probably tease Harry about that for the rest of the summer.

Hermione waved with her hand as if she was waving away a fly. "Let's not think about that. What are you doing today? I know for a fact you are not going to touch the laundry."

"Nope."

"Of course not", she leaned her head against her hand. "You're not playing hero today are you, Harry?"

"Not much. My aunt have been nagging me with getting a summer job. So I'm going to get one."

"That photographer job? Since when did you get an artist's touch, Harry?"

Harry shrugged. "How hard can it be?"

 **AUTHORS END NOTES:**

 **This chapter truly shows that Petunia is NOT the Petunia we all know from canon. She love Harry as her own son, but is also very strict about some things. Funny thing is, multiple times I found myself writing aunt May instead of aunt Petunia.**


	5. Chapter 4 - Comes Great Responsibility

The man in front of Harry glanced up at him from the photos in his hands.

"Crap, crap, mega-crap", he said as he looked through them.

Harry looked with hope at the publisher and editor-in-chief of _the Daily Telegraph_ : Vernon Dursley.

The man was so robust his neck wasn't visible, his moustache was as thick as a thumb and he had an intimidating look that told everyone he was a force to be reckoned with.

"You're calling these photos?" Dursley raised one of his thick eyebrows at Harry.

"Yes, sir", Harry answered.

"What did you take these with? Soap?"

"No, sir I…"

"Don't answer that question. Who sent you?"

Harry was speechless. He should have let Hermione come with him – this man was worse than Snape, and that's saying something.

"Well don't gawk at me like a fool and get it over with, I have a paper to run!" Dursley barked.

Harry nervously cleared his throat.

"I was looking for a summer job, sir. I saw you needed photos of Spider-Man."

"And you obviously see this lunatic as some _hero_ , huh?"

"He seems to be helping people…"

"Helping people!" Dursley roared. "Last night he almost killed a person, and in broad day light he caused a massive car crash! Several people were injured, public property destroyed! That is not a hero. The real heroes saved our great country at the battlefield fighting off the enemy with their blood, sweat and tears, not in a ludicrous pajamas climbing on buildings!"

Harry sighed.

"Do I get a job or not, _sir_?"

Dursley glanced down at the photos again, and shrugged.

"You get five pounds, nothing more", he pulled some change out of his pocket and put it in front of Harry.

"Five pounds? That seems a little low."

"You're a kid, what do you expect? A whole carnival? Alright, take fifteen and get out of my sight."

"Does this mean I have a job, sir?"

Dursley scoffed.

"No job – freelance. Best thing in the world for a kid your age. _Meat_ – I'll send you a nice box of Christmas meat, but I never said you have a job."

Harry returned home disappointed. When he stepped in, Hermione sat at the kitchen-table and read a book. She was so into it that she didn't notice him when he sat down.

He cleared his throat to get her attention, and she jumped a bit.

"Oh, Harry! I didn't notice you! How did it go?"

Harry shook his head.

"Not good."

"Why not? Those publishers would pay a fortune for your pictures."

Harry dug up the little money he had been given, and put it on the table.

Hermione looked at him with a confused look. "All of those photos for fifteen pounds? Didn't you demand more?"

Harry scoffed. "He looked like he was ready to throw me out of the window, of course I didn't."

"Why didn't you go to another paper?"

"It's no big deal. I get another chance to get more. Right now my aunt needs everything she can get."

As the evening descended upon them, they relaxed in the sofa and watched TV. Nothing big seemed to be happening tonight, which was strange, especially for a big city like London.

Even if it was the most relaxing evening Harry had for months, he couldn't let his mind off that something bad might be happening right now.

Maybe someone was being mugged or murdered at this very moment, and here he cuddled with his girlfriend acting like he didn't have any responsibilities.

That was the worst part of making a promise that huge – you couldn't live your own life. He felt he spent more time in the suit than out of it.

But the good thing was that he hadn't had any big problems, like a man-eating shark on two legs or something worse. It was mostly thieves, murderers; those kind of people he stopped.

That he could handle. Living two lives was something completely else.

He noticed how Hermione glanced at him with a concerned look.

"We can watch something else if you want to", she said.

"No, it's fine. I was just daydreaming."

She looked at him with a suspicious look, but didn't say anything.

He had promised her to not put on the suit for tonight, but he was needed out there. What if a bank robbery happened in this very minute? And he was sitting here in aunt Petunia's sofa watching TV with Hermione.

Hermione got up from the sofa. "You want something to eat? There's some leftover dinner if you'd like", she looked at Harry with major concern – most likely understanding what was going through his head.

"Yeah, sure."

She walked away to the kitchen, and he was left to wait.

He waited for her, but over time his gaze slowly went over the room and to the window. He shook his head and sighed, turning his eyes back to the TV-screen. He'd promised, he wasn't going to break that promise behind her back.

Around midnight, Harry waited for Hermione to fall asleep. Eventually she did, and he snuck up from the bed and looked out through the window.

He hesitated to go out there. It was his responsibility to do so, after all. But for not too long ago he almost killed a person.

Slowly he dressed up in the suit; made sure the web-shooters were loaded and pulled up the window. He looked at Hermione and still wondered if this was the best thing to do.

He stood there for a good while, until he pulled down the window again. He couldn't do it, not after last night.

Not after what he'd almost done. He couldn't break his promise to Hermione either.

A sudden voice startled him. "Harry?" Hermione said in the dark. "Are you still awake?"

She turned the bed lamp on and noticed him.

"I thought you'd promised", she mumbled.

Harry scoffed. "Yeah, I know. I just don't know if I can do this."

Hermione put her night robe on and got up to him.

"Harry, I understand. I understand why you feel like you owe the world everything. What I don't understand is why you can't take one day off for _me_ , while I'm here for the weekend", she looked him firmly in the eyes, even if his face was behind a mask.

"I've already told you about this", Harry mumbled frustrated behind the mask.

"Yes, but why do you keep insisting on leaving? It's not your job, Harry. It's up to the police force to catch criminals, not you."

"But I'm Spider-Man. It _is_ my job to be out there. I have the power to do what the police can't, it's my responsibility to use these powers for something good."

Hermione sighed.

"Can you please take of that mask?"

Harry slowly shook his head, refusing to answer.

"I need to do this, Hermione. You know that. I made a promise."

Hermione just looked at him like he was a hopeless kid.

"Who am I talking to right now?"

Harry scoffed. "Really?"

"I'm serious, Harry. Who am I talking to? Harry Potter or Spider-Man?"

Yet again he refused to answer her.

He gave her a final look before he walked towards the window, but she grabbed him with a firm grip and pulled him towards her.

She seemed genuinely shocked. "Is this what this is about?" Harry did something of a small nod. "Oh my God, Harry. _What_ are you thinking?"

In the distance he could faintly hear sirens.

"I need to go", he opened the window and crawled up on the edge.

When he looked over his shoulder, Hermione stood there with crossed arms and just looked at him with anger and disappointment. He could tell that she hated him for leaving her in the middle of the night in aunt Petunia's apartment. He didn't blame her; he had after all promised her he would take a day off.

Without a last word he attached a web to a nearby building and swung away.

 **AUTHORS END NOTES**

 **I wanted to show the internal struggle of Harry living two lives. He wants to use his powers for good, but he also wants to have a personal life. He's just a kid, so he does what think is best, and betrays Hermione's trust in the process. And yes, I _adore_ J.K Simmons portrayal as J. Jonah Jameson, so I gave the role of Jameson to our unfriendly neighborhood Vernon Dursley.**


	6. Chapter 5 - Itsy Bitsy Spider

With enormous haste he caught up to the sirens, emanating from a whole group of emergency vehicles.

There had to be something really bad going down, judging by the amount of cars sent out. He started shuffling the different possible scenarios through his head, maybe it was an explosion; a huge fire; or even a hostage situation.

He swung very close to the street only to pull himself up again, high up above the vehicles. All the way up where he was, he could see it: a huge roaring fire surrounding a sixteen-story apartment block. It looked like a giant candle towering up from the ground and illuminating everything around it with its burning hot flames.

Harry felt the panic coming over him as he saw the inferno. "Oh no. Oh no. Oh, this is bad. This is real bad!"

He hurried as fast as he possibly could, afraid that he would not get there in time. And it was a lot of people to save; how would he save all of them? There was no way he could…

An explosion blew up from the building in a fiery cloud. How many people had died in that blast?

He got himself close to the building and stared at the raging flames with fear. There's no way everyone would get out.

It was a lot of cover; a lot of floors and a lot of people.

"Oh man", he saw a couple of fire-men struggling to get the people out. "Maybe I should help."

He spun a web and swung straight through a window with enough force to break it. Panting and coughing he tumbled down on the floor, struggling to get up on his feet.

His spidersense was going off the charts as he tried to see through the coal-black smoke. He heard crying, screaming, the raging flames all at once.

What was he supposed to do? With agility and speed he jumped through the flames and landed on the ceiling, quickly crawling around it, trying to spot anyone in need of help.

The heat was slowly but surely getting to him and he felt the streams of sweat gluing his mask to his skin.

"Is anyone here?" he shouted at the top of his lungs.

He heard a loud cough from the corner of the room and immediately navigated his way through the rubble.

"Help! Anyone! Help!"

In the corner a woman sat with a small crying girl in her arms.

Harry landed with a thud on the floor, and without a second of hesitation he lifted the little girl up in his arms and let her cling around his neck. He attempted to pull the woman up from her spot, but she refused and shook her head.

"Get my girl out, please!" she begged.

"Mom!"

"I'm not leaving you here!" Harry screamed behind the mask.

A smaller explosion shook rumble down over them, quickly he shielded the girl as much as he could.

"Go!" the woman shouted.

Harry hesitated for a second, before pulling himself away and jumping out of the closest exit. "Don't look down", he yelled at the girl while swinging her down to safety.

Exhausted and coughing, he put down the little girl with a couple of the fire-men.

They just stared at him with a confused look.

"How did you…?"

"I'm going back in there", Harry coughed through the mask.

"Are you nuts? That place will blow in any second!"

"There's still people in there!"

"We got most of them out, we had a little help from…"

A blazing explosion blew up from the place Harry just had left.

In shock he looked up.

"Mommy!"

Harry tossed himself up, and swung into the same apartment.

Amongst the flames, he spotted a man in armor, that just had left the place.

"Hey!"

Another explosion blew up, this time right in front of him. It launched him back into wall and down on the floor, paralyzed.

Slowly, everything went dark while he still could see the fire burning in the corner of his eyes.

Harry attempted to move, but he felt his right leg was stuck. He was lying on something soft and warm.

As he moved his arm, someone grabbed his hand in a tight grip.

"Don't move", a voice told him.

It was Hermione.

Slowly he opened his eyes and fixated them on her face beside him. She looked like she had been crying for hours on end.

He looked at the bandaged leg, suspended in the air.

"I would hug you, but that would only cause you more pain", she said in a low tone.

She looked at him like he was dying or something.

"Why do you keep doing this to yourself, Harry?" she sniffed.

He could see on her face how broken she was after this whole event.

"I tried, you know", he mumbled. "I really tried. But there was an explosion, it knocked me back…"

Suddenly the door to the hospital-room opened. In stepped Tony, he started walking around the room.

Harry was surprised to see him here.

"What are you doing here? Hermione, what is he doing here?"

Hermione looked at him like he just had insulted her personally. "Mr Stark saved your life. If it wasn't for him, you wouldn't be here."

"What?"

Tony snickered while walking around the room.

"You have heart, kid. I give you that", he said. "But next time, call for backup. Or just let the big guys do the job."

"What do you think I am, incapable?"

Tony suddenly changed his tone and became a bit aggressive. "No, I don't think you're incapable, but you, acting out your little superhero dreams almost cost you your life! Harry, I can see great potential in you but you're just wasting it all away! You could become something the average man look up to."

"What, like you?"

Tony pulled his hand through his hair and was quiet for a while.

"You know who I am, right?"

"You're Tony Stark, the prick who tried to trick me into your boyband."

Tony scoffed and shook his head.

"I'm Tony Stark – genius billionaire and owner of Stark Industries. Not too unlike you, I also dress up in a suit doing ridiculous things under the name Iron Man. But I sure as hell don't throw my ass in a fire without thinking first!"

"I had it under control, you didn't need to save me."

"Yeah? I could've left you burning to a crisp, but I didn't! If I had, your aunt would've been forced to bury another loved one!"

Harry couldn't move much, but if he'd the ability to, he would've tossed him out the window in a heartbeat.

Hermione didn't look to happy either, and raised her eyebrows, looking at Tony.

"If you excuse me, mr Stark, Harry needs to rest."

Tony didn't meet her gaze, but instead simply nodded and walked out the door.

Hermione looked at Harry, gripping his hand harder.

Harry gritted his teeth. "He had no right to…"

"I know, Harry. I know."

The next day Harry was back in action although Hermione had strongly advised against doing much of anything until he was fully healed.

But he couldn't stand taking it easy while the rest of the city was fully active and full of things going down every moment.

As he looked out over the city, his phone called. He sighed and answered.

"Yeah?" his eyes spotted a car chased by a couple of police cars, all speeding fast down the street, and immediately he jumped off the rooftop and swung after it.

"For goodness sake, Harry! I turn my back to you for one second and you're off getting hurt again?" Hermione sounded more than just upset, more like I-will-burn-you-alive-kind of angry.

"Yeah, I just went out for some fresh air."

She was silent while he got closer to the speeding car at the front.

"Are those sirens?"

"Yeah, they just passed by me on the street! Crazy, right?"

"Harry…"

"Sorry, I gotta go. Love you."

He turned off his phone and tossed himself spiraling up in the air with a loud joy filled yell.

After webbing up some bad guys, he returned back home around noon only to be met with a slap across his mask-covered face.

"What did you do that for?" he yelled behind the mask.

Hermione looked like she'd had enough. "What _is_ your problem? I thought this weekend was supposed to be about us, not your superhero fantasies!"

"Fantasies? I save people's lives, I do things no one else can! Am I not supposed to use these powers, is that what you're telling me?"

"You don't get it, do you?" she looked angrily at him with watered eyes. "You don't get how it feels when you just leave? When you go out there and do… _all this_? And for what? Because being famous in the wizardry world isn't enough for you?"

She stared at him with something that resembled disappointment or maybe even disbelief.

Harry stared back behind the mask.

"I thought you were okay with this", he mumbled.

She didn't say anything.

"I thought you built these web-shooters for a reason, I thought you helped me making this suit…"

"Yes, but it's different from making a promise you can't keep! You promised it was going to be just us this weekend, no Spider-Man. But you lied again, Harry. You lied, and I don't know if I can trust you anymore", she gave a small, hysterical laugh. "Who knows? Maybe you will beat me to death in my sleep, just like with that boy?"

Harry took a deep breath behind his mask. He was at the edge to tears and didn't know how else to keep them back.

"Give me a last chance", he begged.

She gave a sigh and put her hand on his cheek with a regretful look.

"I have known you for nearly six years, Harry. I know that, once you set your mind to something, you're not going to stop no matter what. You have promised time and time again to put away the suit while I'm here", she said.

"I also promised something else", Harry felt the tears coming down his face behind the mask, which also made his voice muddy. "I promised to do everything in my power to keep people from harm. That includes you."

"Harry, I mean no disrespect but I think you might have taken your uncle's words too serious. I don't think he meant for you to risk your life every day, I think he referred to Voldemort, not…"

Harry looked up at her.

"I know he's on the move."

"What?"

"He's planning something. I don't know. Death Eaters came to Dungeon Alley… I saw them at a distance but I didn't get close enough to see what they were doing."

He walked over to the bed and sat down. She slowly sat down beside him.

"Why haven't you told me?" she asked.

Harry shrugged.

"I don't know", he looked down on the floor, then up to her again. "But I don't want to lose you too, Hermione. I'll do whatever it takes to make you happy."

Blaring sirens were heard at a distance.

She smiled.

"Well… if you're so keen of saving the world, it needs you right now, _Spider-Man_."

Harry raised up. "I thought you…"

"We'll have this conversation afterwards! Hurry!"

A bit confused, Harry gave her a last look before jumping out of the window again.

 **AUTHORS END NOTES**

 **Misery, misery. That's what you've chosen. Originally this was going to be the chapter where Green Goblin would be introduced, but I thought it would be way too early and changed it to Iron Man/Tony Stark saving Harry out of the burning building.**

 **Also you may ask, why does Hermione act like she doesn't know what she wants. That's because that's exactly what it is. She doesn't. She wants Harry to be happy, but she fears for his life everytime he puts the suit on. Or maybe I'm just talking out of my ass and** ** _I_** **don't know what I want with her character.**


	7. Chapter 6 - This is My Path

Harry had at least an hour worth of talking with Hermione when they had to come up with a way to balance the world-saving part with the Hermione-time part.

It wasn't the best plan, but Hermione had decided to stay three more days until she went home, and Harry tried the best he could to spend time with her. Of course there were times when he simply couldn't ignore when something happened right outside his window, and had to suit up.

He even took her up on a rooftop to show her his view of the city in costume, just to show one of the tiny joys of being Spider-Man.

From here they could see a big part of London, bathing in the sunset.

"It's amazing."

He shrugged and crouched down at the edge of the roof, looking out over the city. "It's alright."

She slowly sat down on her knees beside him, shaking. "So this is what you do."

"Yeah. Sure, I wish the view was a bit better, but what are you gonna do?"

Hermione lightly smacked her lips. He could tell she was nervous and wanted to tell him something.

"Harry, I've thought a lot about us lately. I'm going home tomorrow, so I wanted to tell you now, in person."

Harry looked at her, worryingly.

"Don't start this again", he mumbled. "I've told you…"

"No, no, this isn't about Spider-Man. This is about us, as people."

Harry slowly nodded.

"There's been some change of plans. We can't see each other anymore during the remaining of the summer."

"What? I thought I was coming over to you next time and we were going to the Burrow together?"

Hermione slowly shook her head. "They said something about us needing a break from each other, that we are far too young for a serious relationship. I think your aunt Petunia told them what we we're… up to during the weekend. So they're taking me on a mountain hike to get my mind off _boys_ , as my mom put it. We're going to fish, swim, camp and all of that. I don't think you would like it anyway, but I'll be sure to take some photos for you."

Harry nodded. Inside he was a bit torn apart.

She touched his mask-covered face.

"Don't worry, we'll be seeing each other on the train-station. But please don't get yourself into hospital again. I don't want to see your aunt in that condition again. It was very hard on her when you were knocked out."

Harry nodded yet again. "I'll try."

She smiled and gave him a kiss on his cheek.

"Don't do that", he smirked behind the mask.

"Why not?" she looked at him with a bit of confusion.

Harry gave a chuckle and tossed his legs over the edge of the roof. "You don't know where it's been!"

"What, other girls kiss you?" she pushed him in his side but laughed.

"No, but criminals spray their horrible breath on me every time they want to tell me how much they love me. And one time I had to chase two guys down in a sewer! _A sewer!_ It smelled worse than Hagrids body-odor."

Hermione kept laughing, as did he.

The next morning Harry took farewell of Hermione, before he rushed out again. While swinging his phone suddenly started ringing; he didn't recognize the number.

"Oh, c'mon! I had such a good morning!"

With a quick jump he let go of the webbing and landed on a wall and answered the phone.

"Hiya, it's your friendly neighbor Spider-Man at your service."

"Do you really answer like that on phone? That's unprofessional", it was Tony Stark.

"I just want the poor salesman to feel special during his boring job. And how did you get this number?"

Tony scoffed. "Uh, remember that I'm a genius with unlimited resources? It's not very hard to track you down."

"Right."

"Anyways, the rest of the team disagrees that I should let you jump around by yourself out there. Especially after you miserably got yourself into hospital. Steve says I should monitor you, and I agree. You're too young, too irresponsible to be throwing your head first into danger."

Harry scoffed.

"You're unbelievable, you know that right?" he caught the sound of sirens in the distance.

"You almost ruined a child's entire life because you didn't think things through. I can't allow that to happen again. What are you gonna do when it's on a bigger scale? Let's say, a bomb goes off with a room full of people – what are you going to do?"

Harry didn't answer; he'd had caught something on the police radio, it sounded like a bank robbery only a couple of blocks away.

"Hey, kid! Are you listening to me? You…"

"I gotta go", Harry quickly shut off his phone and swung off.

The weeks progressed in almost the same manner: he woke up, put his suit on, ignored the phone calls he got from Tony, spoke with Hermione over the phone, got to bed and repeat with minor changes.

Every day things happened around the city and when he got back home he usually was exhausted.

"Yeah. I know", he fell down with a thud on his bed, talking to Hermione over the phone after another day. "And before you repeat yourself, I'm going to say that I had no intensions of breaking that guy's arm. I just hit a little too hard. He was threatening a girl with a knife, what was I supposed to do?"

"I don't know, web him up? Get his attention? But no matter what you have to pull your punches, Harry. Real life is not a comic book."

"Yeah, I know you already said that", he smiled.

"Maybe you can take some advice from mr Stark? I know he was being unreasonable last time we met him, but you could use some advice from someone more experienced."

"No."

"Harry… you honestly can't hold a grudge against him. He saved your life."

Harry loosely bit his lip in doubt. "Did he?"

Hermione sighed.

"Because I don't feel that way when I wake up, and when I put on the suit I think: _will I get back home alive or will I end up beside my uncle?_ " he took a short pause. "Waking up every day, knowing that no matter how many lives I protect, no matter how many people call me a hero, someone even more powerful could change everything. You do know that, right?"

Hermione was quiet for a few seconds before she answered. "You got bitten by a radio-active spider, correct?"

"Yeah. It sounds silly when you say it like that…"

"How high are the chance of that happening again?"

Harry looked over to his door to check if his aunt was spying on him. "Pretty high. We have Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor… you want me to keep going?"

Hermione gave a tired chuckle.

"Okay, you got a point. Just try to stay out of trouble – by not punching people. But I have to sleep now, Harry. It's been a long day. We talk more tomorrow."

Harry nodded even if he knew she couldn't see him. "Sure. Alright, love you."

"Love you", she hung up and yet again he was left lonely.

He laid back on his pillow, staring up towards the ceiling and thinking about what Hermione just had told him.

Harry spent the next morning by his desk, skimming through a book about martial arts and trying to understand the most of it. In the process he accidently broke his ceiling light among a couple of other things in the room.

Around lunch-time his phone called. He gave it a quick look to see who it was: he didn't recognize the number.

"Uh, hello?"

"Harry, I don't see you", it was Ron.

Great.

He'd completely forgot Ron would come over and visit him. They were supposed to meet up by the train station, and Ron most certainly would get lost amongst the rushing crowds of Muggles.

Harry glanced up the clock on his desk and quickly got out of his chair.

"Oh crap. Sorry, Ron. I'm coming over right now", he reached for the attic hatch to take out the suit, but quickly decided to not put it on.

"You're not here?" Ron didn't sound too worried, he sounded more like he just had witnessed someone die. "I need to speak with you right now. Something… something has… I have to tell you in person."

"Something happened?"

"Yeah."

Harry got a bit worried; what exactly had happened?

"Listen, I get there as fast as possible, alright? Don't go anywhere."

"Sure."

Harry hung up and rushed to the door out of the apartment.

"Hey where are you going? It's soon lunch, Harry", aunt Petunia said over her shoulder.

"Ron's waiting for me at the train station, I'll be back soon."

With haste he for once went out the door without the suit and just in a pair of shoes and a zipper sweater.

 **AUTHORS END NOTES**

 **If you didn't notice it by now, I'm heavily basing Tony Stark off the MCU movies, and most of the Harry Potter characters off the books. Anyway, that's what I imagined while writing this. And I don't know why, but the suit I imagine Harry in is the Amazing Spider-Man 2 suit. The movie might be a mess, but that costume is** ** _amazing_** **.**


	8. Chapter 7 - The Weasley Heritage

"You took your bloody time", Ron muttered as Harry approached him.

"Sorry, I was busy with homework."

Ron raised his eyebrows. "She's still at your house, torturing you with homework?"

They started walk away from the station and the crowd.

"No, she went home, going on some hike with her parents."

"That's a relief."

"What's up anyway? You seemed upset on the phone."

Ron took a deep breath, looking at him.

"It's dad", Ron had tears in his eyes. "You know I told you he got into St Mungo's at the start of summer?"

"Yeah, it was some rare disease, right?" Harry could see Ron just had lost something of great value by just looking at him. "It got worse?"

"Yeah, he…"

Ron bit his lip and brushed away tears with his jacket.

"He died in his sleep. Mom is absolutely miserable after we found out."

They stopped, a bit from the station.

"What?" Harry just stared at him, not wanting to believe what he'd just heard. "Why?"

"Can we talk more at your house?"

Harry and Ron returned just in time for the lunch aunt Petunia had prepared. Ron had only once met her once, and that was before Ron's family had picked up Harry just a couple of nights before going to the Quidditch World Cup.

"My, you kids grow fast. You are much taller than I remember", aunt Petunia said with a slight chuckle.

"Yeah, amazing isn't it", Ron gave Harry a slightly amused look.

After lunch Harry and Ron went into Harry's room. Ron began slowly to walk around the room, looking at the photos on the walls.

"It's sad really, my dad never gave me much of anything", he said with his back turned.

He sighed.

"He loved you. That's the main thing", said Harry.

Ron shook his head and turned around to face him. " _Did_ he?"

He tossed Harry some sort of small, black device.

"This is all he gave me, during his dying breaths. Ginny didn't get anything, not the others either. I guess he thought I would be the only one to understand."

"What is it?" Harry asked while inspecting the object.

"See for yourself", Ron didn't just look completely broken, he looked betrayed. "Just hold it in your palm. It will… show a bunch of rapid images. I forgot what the Muggle word for it is. I still don't get why all this secrecy."

Ron sat down by the desk, almost with the expression of someone who just had been running an entire marathon.

Harry held the device flat in his hand. A hologram of a video expanded itself onto thin air and a voice began to speak.

In the hologram mr Weasley sitting by a desk, showed up. "Hi, Ron. If you have this message, I am most likely dead. I never intended for you to find out, not any of you. But I have no other choice."

Harry stared at the holographic screen with so many questions starting to circle in his head.

"I am not a good father. I never will be. I don't expect you to forgive me, I just want you to know the truth, Ron", said the holographic mr Weasley. "There is a rare disease in our blood-line. As my father and his father before me, my children are also affected. But with a bit of a loan from the Potter family I made a serum that can _at least_ save my children, if not myself."

"They knew what he was doing?" Harry quickly glanced up at Ron who shrugged.

"The serum that I created, have to be injected at an early age for it to have any chance to work. I injected it into each one of you around the age of three to five, without Molly's or anyone else's knowledge. The lab's yours to keep, if you so would want it. The key is in the back of this device along with the address. I hope you will find peace knowing the truth about me."

And then the message ended. Harry was completely paralyzed.

Ron gave a small chuckle. "Crazy, right? All this time, I thought my dad loved researching about Muggles and their things. It was all just an act, Harry. Just lies, all of it. Maybe even his name was fake."

Harry tossed the device back to Ron.

"I don't know what to say", he tried to find anything reasonable so say, but it was impossible.

"Yeah", Ron took a deep breath and exhaled. "He used your parent's money, and never once did he tell us. He just kept smiling, pretending to be dumber than he really was. Hell, he could have been just as annoying as Hermione if he didn't pretend all the time."

"Uncle Sirius never mentioned anything like this."

"Maybe his brother didn't tell him, who knows? _Maybe_ your dad was in on it too. Maybe it was bigger than we think it is. I really don't know what to believe anymore."

Harry slowly nodded.

"I'll… research about it. Aunt Petunia might know about it. Maybe Hermione knows something if you show her that device when we get on the train to Hogwarts."

Ron gave him a small smile. "Thanks, Harry."

"No problem."

Harry and Ron decided to shake off the depressing atmosphere by taking a walk around by the river.

"You never talk much about Hermione and you. Is she really that big of a pain?"

"Nah, she just think's I'm in another world most of the time."

Ron skipped a stone over the water-surface with a good throwing hand.

"Yeah, that's girls for you. Always want attention."

Harry crouched down as he watched the waves. "No, it's not that. It's more like she dislikes me being more of the heroic type more than just myself, you know? She thinks I have a personality disorder."

Ron gave out a short laugh.

"It's complicated", Harry shook his head. "But we love each other, where's the harm?"

"Is she any good?"

"What?" Harry frowned his eyebrows.

"Yeah, is she any good?"

Harry looked at him for a while, then he chuckled when he saw Ron's smirk.

"I am not telling you _that_ much. But yeah, she will probably send me to St Mungo's soon if I'm lucky."

"I won't be surprise if she does."

Harry shook his head and tossed a rock straight over the water.

"So… you've heard about this mental spider-guy? I hear about him on the news."

Harry looked up at Ron. "Spider-Man? Yeah, I have. What of him?"

"I don't know. He seems like Viktor Krum's type; risking his neck up in the air for fame, the girls are crazy about him… you know, all of that."

"Are you seriously comparing him to Viktor?"

"Yeah, kinda. And he's just as annoying I've heard, yapping about, never shuts his mouth. Hermione gotta love a guy like that, right?"

"Nah, she thinks he's more of a menace."

Ron laughed as he tossed yet another rock skipping across the water surface. "I can't really blame her."

Harry stood up and looked at Ron. "So what are you going to do about your dad's lab?"

Ron shrugged. "Check it out I guess. I really don't got any other choice other than selling it. I'm already rubbish at potions, I'd doubt I'll keep it."

Ron went home late in the evening where Harry took the opportunity to suit up, but he didn't return home until after midnight.

He took the door just to be safe, in case aunt Petunia was worried. He peeked into the kitchen, where there were no sight of his aunt.

After such a long night of crime fighting he was starving and tired, and he really didn't want to wake aunt Petunia up and cause a ruckus.

As quiet as possible he went over to the fridge and looked after something to eat.

"Where have you been?" the ceiling lamp lit up.

Harry quickly turned around and saw aunt Petunia standing in the doorway to her bedroom.

"Out with Ron", he said with a nervous chuckle, trying to be as convincing as possible.

Aunt Petunia looked at him with a piercing glare. "At this hour? What were you up to, Harry?"

"Nothing."

There was a moment of silence before any of them spoke.

"I'm grounding you for the rest of the week. I've got to sleep now, I have to go to work in the morning", she said before returning to her bedroom.

"What? You can't…", Harry sighed and cursed silently in his head.

He took a bit of food with him to his room and sat down before his computer in silence, thinking over what Ron had showed him today.

He'd thought of mr Weasley as a kind and loving family man with an odd fixation for devices and objects from the Muggle-world, but he had no idea how wrong he was all along.

In the morning Harry decided to confront aunt Petunia about the matter, and he hoped she had some idea what the connection between his father and mr Weasley was.

He just had to figure out the best way to say it.

"Is something the matter, Harry?" aunt Petunia asked during breakfast. "If you need something from the store, you have to get it yourself because I'm in a hurry. But you can't go anywhere else, got it?"

"No, no, it's not that", Harry shook his head.

He looked down at his bowl of cereal and up at her again.

Aunt Petunia looked at him with a frazzled look. "Then what is it? It's about Hermione, isn't it?"

"No. Aunt Petunia, you knew my parents better than me", he started and got a curious look from aunt Petunia. "Yesterday, Ron told me his father had passed away because of a genetic disease. And he told me his father worked together with my father. Is it true? Did uncle Sirius ever say anything about that?"

Aunt Petunia got quiet – really, really quiet.

"Ron just want to know the truth, nothing more. And I want to know as well if my father worked with mr Weasley", Harry added.

"Harry… sweetheart…", aunt Petunia patted his hand. "Everybody have their secrets, but there's nothing I can't tell you that you don't already know."

Harry could tell something was off with her response.

He pulled away his hand and frowned. "But mr Weasley lied to his entire family who he was. He wasted my father's money to keep himself alive."

"I got to go, Harry", aunt Petunia got up from the chair and rushed out to the door. "There's money on the counter for lunch and dinner, and don't forget you're still grounded."

Harry sighed and leaned back in the chair. He directed his gaze towards his room, and as soon as he heard the door lock he got up.

Not long after, he was outside swinging in his costume.

"Yeah, disease", he said to Hermione over phone. "And he lied about everything we thought about him. I still can't process it. He didn't seem like the mad scientist type."

"And you're saying your father worked with him?" Hermione asked.

"He gave him money, that's all I know. But why did my father help mr Weasley? Isn't it a weird coincidence?"

"Not really. They both were in the Order, I would suppose that's how they met."

"My aunt avoided everything I had to say. She definitely know something."

He softly landed on the side of a building.

"Well, we'll be back to Hogwarts in a couple of days anyway. I hope you and Ron have bought all your books ready?" said Hermione.

"Crap. No", Harry slapped his own forehead. "I've got to ask mrs Weasley about that."

"Oh, so you're going to the Burrow?"

"You're not?"

He leaned his head back towards the wall.

"No, sorry. I'm taking it easy after the hike."

"It's okay. I've got Ron to keep an eye on meanwhile."

She gave a small laugh. "Yeah. I hope he can find a way to forgive his father."

"Yeah, personally I would be pissed. But you never know. Maybe he accepts it and moves on."

 **AUTHORS NOTES**

 **I know, I know. ASM2 was a horrible movie, but I really wanted to use the disease concept from that movie as a key point in the story. I thought it would be really interesting if I took this seemingly good and pure man, and revealing he'd just been playing everyone all along for years.**


	9. Chapter 8 - Back to Hogwarts

After a time at the Burrow, Harry was very much looking forward to seeing Hermione again.

As soon as Harry spotted Hermione in the group of people by the Hogwarts train, he ran towards her and threw his arms around her - kissing her, almost making them both fall over.

He finally let her go after a moment. "Harry! You almost knocked me over!" but she was smiling at him.

"What do you expect me to do?" said Harry with a grin.

Ron walked up towards them. "Hi", he didn't look very enthusiastic about seeing Hermione.

"Hi, Ron."

Harry wondered if it was him, or if there was tension between Ron and Hermione more than usual.

He put his arm around Hermione's shoulder. "Uh, how about we find an empty compartment on the train?"

Hermione looked a bit confused. "What? Yes, of course."

They took their luggage and stepped on the train, but Harry noticed how Ron didn't follow them.

"Ron? You're not coming?"

"No, I'm waiting for… someone."

Harry frowned slightly. "Alright, sure."

"What's up with him, anyway?" Hermione asked while they were dragging their luggage through the train corridors.

"I have no idea anymore. At first he seemed depressed about his dad's death but now? I don't know", he stopped in front of an empty compartment. "This one?"

Hermione nodded as she was dragging her luggage. She seemed to be struggling with her trunk.

"You need help with that?"

Hermione wiped her forehead with the back of her hand. "Yes please, I must've packed too many things with me. It's way too heavy."

"You really should learn to not pack so many books."

Harry lifted up the trunk with ease onto the shelf, thanks to his superhuman strength. He heard a sudden voice behind him as he just got the trunk into place:

"Wow, Harry. Have you been working out during the summer?"

He turned around and there stood Ginny and Dean.

"Me?" Harry asked in confusion. "Well… I take a walk every now and then."

Ginny smirked. "Sure. I'll remember that and maybe I can wrestle my brothers to the ground in no time."

Hermione clung onto Harry with her arms around his neck, smiling towards Ginny and Dean. "Don't mind him. He's always so modest. In fact, Harry's done a lot of working out this summer."

Hermione gave him a hard kiss on his cheek.

"Ah…", Ginny glanced distraught to the side. "Well, see you two at the sorting ceremony. Nice to see you, Hermione."

And with that they both disappeared down the hallway.

Harry stared at Hermione as she let go of him and they sat down. "What was that all about?"

Hermione stared back. "For goodness sake, Harry didn't you see how she was looking at you with big dreamy eyes?"

"Hermione, are you jealous?" Harry grinned.

Hermione blushed and shook her head. "No. No! No, of course not! I wouldn't…"

"Yeah, you are."

"What if I am? How would you feel if someone looked at me like that?"

Harry smacked lightly with his lips. "I would probably break their jaw. Yeah, you have a point. But so what if she looks at me dreamy? Let her look and ignore it."

"It's not that easy. You of all people should know that."

The ride to Hogwarts was mostly quiet except when Hermione had to leave for the prefect-meeting. Harry decided to put the suit on and sneak in through the roof and stick to the shadows in the ceiling.

He spotted professor McGonagall walking on and off around the carriage, while the prefects and the rest of the heads of the other houses sat gathered on the seats.

"But I have something important to tell you all, even if you are not from my house. As you all know this dressed up figure attends our school, or at the very least roams it. We don't know his intentions but no matter the case it's up to you prefects to immediately report to the headmaster or the head of your house if there's _any_ sightings of this figure", Hermione reached her hand up in the air. "Yes, miss Granger?"

"His name is Spider-Man. Or, the Muggles call him by that name. He's all over the news in the Muggle-world."

Malfoy chuckled. "Proves how idiotic Muggles are."

"Draco", mumbled Snape slowly. "Watch your mouth."

"What? It's true!"

"Ten points off from Slytherin."

"You can't do that, the term hasn't even started yet."

"Be quiet."

Harry crawled a bit closer to the center of the ceiling.

"May I say my thoughts on this figure, Minerva?" mumbled Snape, and McGonagall nodded.

Snape cleared his throat. "I think the school should harden the security. Albus can't sit by and do nothing while this man… this _creature_ invades our school. This figure is a threat to all of us – how do we know he's not in this very room right now?"

Malfoy scoffed. "Don't be ridiculous. That freak wouldn't dare to show himself here."

Snape casted a deadly side-eye his way.

"You're absolutely right, Severus. We have to speak with Albus about this matter."

Harry had heard enough and got out the same way he got in, taking his suit off again and got a bit of candy off the trolley cart waiting for Hermione.

She returned soon afterwards.

"How was it?" Harry asked when she sat down beside him.

"The usual. Professor McGonagall talked a bit about _you_ , except she doesn't know it's you."

"Ah", Harry cleared his throat. "So they are gonna set up an arrest warrant?"

Hermione grabbed a jelly slug and took a bite out of it. "I would say they are increasing the security. Not like that will stop you."

"It sounded more like a manhunt to me", Harry said, before realizing what he'd uttered and got a suspicious look from Hermione. "I mean… it would be, right? They wouldn't let someone like me go free…"

"Harry."

"No, of course not."

"Harry", she said louder. "Were you listening in?"

Harry tried to avoid her stare and knew he'd already blown his cover.

"I knew it!" Hermione got up and quickly peeked out of the compartment before sitting down again. "Harry, what were you doing there?"

"I was curious!"

"You were curious?"

"Yes!"

Hermione exhaled deeply and pulled a hand through her hair. "Okay, yes. They are planning to track you down, Harry. I don't know how, they didn't say. The Aurors will most likely be a part of it, so you'd better watch out."

Harry fell asleep during the ride, but got waken up by Hermione.

"Harry, we have to get changed. I believe we are there soon."

Harry stretched and yawned. "Really? How long was I out?"

"For a good while. You seemed like you needed it", Hermione tossed him his robes and glasses. "And take your contacts off. I can't imagine wearing those all day would do you any good."

"Hermione, I know when to switch and when not to. Don't worry. I just dozed off."

Harry started change into his Hogwarts robe while Hermione lifted down her trunk.

"How do you feel about getting back to Hogwarts?" Hermione asked.

"Oh you know, I don't have to deal with laundry anymore", he grinned and she laughed.

While they put their robes on, Harry wondered how it really would be to return to Hogwarts – changed and now with the persona of Spider-Man to juggle with school and his normal life.

Maybe it wasn't so bad – the only problem being was how he would get to London. Over summer it was easy to just put on the suit and jump out the window.

At Hogwarts? He would have a much harder time.

Hermione gave him a look and shook her head, walking up to him and helped him with his tie.

"For goodness sake, Harry. There's a very simple spell to use if you can't do it by hand."

"Why aren't you using it if it's so simple?" Harry smiled.

Hermione shrugged. "It would be too simple, wouldn't it?"

"Yeah, I guess so."

He moved closer, slowly starting to kiss her. A sudden loud knock made them both jump. Harry quietly cursed in his head and he saw Hermione looked pretty annoyed too.

Outside stood Ron, waiting for them. "Blimey. Can you two stay two minutes together without snogging? You are worse than Dean and Ginny."

Harry scoffed. "Let's just go."

It didn't take long for them to get on one of the carriages, taking them up to the castle and with them came Lavender, Dean and Ginny.

"So what have you two up to this summer?" Lavender asked and looked at Harry and Hermione. "I heard you two had some action going."

Harry grinned. "Yeah, you can put it that way."

"Please Lav, don't", Ron mumbled.

"Whatever you heard, it doesn't concern you", Hermione snapped. "It's personal."

Harry remember the moment he and Hermione got together; it didn't feel that long ago.

It was about one year ago they had fallen in love with each other, after Harry had got back after the duel with Voldemort on the graveyard and taken into the hospital wing.

That was the first time he'd felt such a strong sense of love – it felt right.

"No need to be so stingy about everything, Hermione", Lavender rolled her eyes.

"Didn't you hear her? It's none of your concern", Ginny said annoyingly.

Harry looked up towards the castle as the carriage pulled them closer to it. He had a strange feeling in his stomach, like a sizzling feeling that made him uneasy but at the same time extremely happy – it was good to be home again.

 **AUTHORS NOTES:**

 **Harry does use contacts (I mostly wanted this as it makes more sense when he wears his mask), but occasionally his glasses. I'm not 100% sure how contacts work and if you do need to swap them for glasses once in a while, but I've done as much research as I could and if I'm wrong, someone may correct me.**


	10. Chapter 9 - No Place Like Home

Seated by the Gryffindor-table, Harry witnessed yet another sorting-ceremony take place. Right after the ceremony, Dumbledore announced that their new Defense Against Dark Arts teacher would be Snape, and their new potions teacher was a man by the name Wilfred Jade.

"I would rather have Snape back", Ron mumbled. "That guy will kill us in our sleep if he'd get the chance."

Hermione gave him a quick, annoying look. "Don't be so judgmental, Ronald. Just because he was a Death Eater fifteen years ago, doesn't mean he will slit our throats in our sleep."

"Say whatever you want. I'm not trusting that bloke for one second", Ron mumbled.

"For goodness sake, Ron! Unless you haven't been keeping up, he _did_ join the Aurors for just a couple of years ago."

Harry wasn't sure whether or not he would trust a former Death Eater, even if Dumbledore gave his say-so. He had this experiences with Death Eaters on the inside once before, who said this wasn't an attempt at infiltrate the castle?

Dumbledore slowly glanced over the room. "Before our feast starts, I want to address the increased security here at Hogwarts. As you all know, dark forces roam in the world, trying to penetrate these castle walls at all cost. A member of those dark forces are likely to already be among us. But do _not_ be alarmed", he raised his hands in the air as soon as panic started to spread amongst the students. "There's a suspicion of a certain figure, me and the rest of the staff can certainly track him down."

Harry and Hermione exchanged looks.

"What?" Ron said with a small chuckle.

"It's nothing", Hermione shook her head.

"We have a suspicion that the figure that resides here is indeed a Death Eater – the man known as Spider-Man. The Ministry of Magic have put out an arrest warrant for this man. This man is suspected to be disguised as a student", immediately heads were turned. "If any of you suspect of his presence, alert the staff immediately. Prefects are obligated to search their houses throughout."

Silence fell over the hall.

Harry frowned in confusion; why would Dumbledore do this? Out of all people he would encourage Spider-Man, not despise him.

Hermione looked at Harry with a frightened expression.

Dumbledore broke the silence. "But please, enjoy the feast. Do not let such dark news cloud your mood and judgement."

A couple of days at Hogwarts was all Harry needed to understand that this hunt for him – well Spider-Man – was being taken seriously.

Harry was at least glad that Hermione had kept Ron from searching his trunk and taken the task upon herself to cover for him.

Though it was hard to get to London using the Floo Network, he still managed to stay out of the Aurors range. Their new teacher – Wilfred Jade – wasn't unlike Snape, but at least not as cruel and unforgiving, he even had some sense of humor.

Harry stumbled into the class-room, exhausted from last night.

"Ah, mr Potter", professor Jade exclaimed. "Late again?"

"Yes, sorry sir. It won't happen again", Harry found his spot beside Hermione, who kept staring angrily at him.

"For goodness sake, Harry. This is the third time this week you're late!" Hermione whispered while she kept staring at him like she was about to breathe fire at him. "Your web…"

Harry noticed one of his web-shooters were barely exposed beneath the robe. "I got it, I got it", quickly he managed to cover the web-shooter and hoped no one had spotted it.

"To be honest, I'm not surprised. The security in this day and age is very strict. Even as an Auror off-duty, I have to empty my pockets every time I'm going to the bathrooms. Maybe they're afraid I'll rig the seats with some practical joke again, even after all these years."

A spread laughter was heard in the room.

"Enough joking around, let's get to studies shall we?"

The days went on and on, and the security around Hogwarts started to wear Harry down after a few weeks. It was tiring to be as stealthy as possible when using the Floo Network, probably even impossible with the mess it made.

And it didn't help that the teachers put a lot of pressure on them, when he sometimes barely got any or no sleep at all during the night.

"How many times do I have to tell you, Ron? It's not worth the trouble. The Aurors will catch him", Hermione said as they entered the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"No they won't. Have you seen how fast he is? There's been multiple sightings of him these past days and no spell is fast enough to even come close to him. Don't you think it's time to bring back Dumbledore's Army? Maybe we have a chance at stopping him?" Ron said and raised his eyebrow at Hermione.

Harry scoffed. "Sorry Ron, I'd rather stay alive than chase some crazy guy climbing on walls."

Hermione tried to cover a smile with a quick cough as they sat down in front of the fireplace.

"What the hell happened to you?" Ron stared at him. "I thought you fought for our cause and all of that? Or have Hermione made you soft these past months?"

"I don't think it's worth it, not after what happened at the Ministry", Harry said.

"What are you scared of? You dueled against You-Know-Who and lived! Twice!"

"Barely. So what?"

Ron just kept staring at him, until he stood up. "I'm going to find Lavender", and he was gone.

Harry sighed.

Hermione gave him a caring glance from the pages of her book. "It's hard, I know. But you have to let him know you can't keep throwing your head first into danger all the time."

"Maybe I should just tell him", Harry leaned back in the couch and put his arm over her shoulders.

"It's not a good idea. It will spread like wildfire through the school if he finds out."

"Hermione, I trust Ron. He's my best friend! Why would I keep him out of something like this?"

Hermione looked up at him again. "Don't you notice anything different with him? He's too rash, too clever and gloomy for the Ron Weasley I know."

"Hermione, he did lose his father."

"That's still no excuse to treat your friends like dirt."

"I suppose not."

For a couple of minutes he leafed through the new issue of _the Quibbler_ , but he couldn't simply get Ron out of his head. Hermione was right; Ron wasn't himself.

Ever since his dad died there was something off, like the world was unhinged.

"I'm going to talk to Ron", he put away _the Quibbler_ on the table and got up.

"What?" Hermione immediately grabbed his arm. "Are you even thinking straight? You have no idea what he will do."

"I'm not gonna say a word about _that_ , I'll just have a quick talk with him."

She gave him a firm look and let go of him. "Don't do something stupid, Harry."

"You know me", Harry smirked.

As Harry walked into his dormitory, he saw Ron look out through a window.

He closed the door behind him. No sight of Lavender – maybe he just couldn't find her?

Harry slowly approached him, but as soon as he took another step, Ron turned around with his wand pointed at him, making him jump a little.

"Oh, it's you", Ron put down his wand. "I thought you were too busy snogging with Hermione."

Ron didn't look very good, more like feverish and with his hair in a mess.

"Where's Lavender? You never told me you guys were together", Harry inspected him from top to toe, attempting to figure out what was wrong with him.

"No, yeah. We met last year", Ron mumbled.

"Ron? Are you alright?" Harry approached him.

Ron looked like he was about to pass out, swaying back and forth.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"You want help to get to the hospital wing?"

"No, I…", Ron lost his balance and would've hit the floor if Harry didn't catch him in time.

"Ron? Ron!"

 **AUTHORS END NOTES**

 **Originally Harry and Ron were supposed to fight at the end of the chapter, ending with Harry knocking him out. But that felt too sudden and weird so I had to rewrite it.**


	11. Chapter 10 - Godspeed, Spider-Man

Thankfully Harry could get Ron to the hospital wing quickly. It wasn't anything life-threatening, just a strong fever but madam Pomfrey wanted him to stay in the hospital wing for a couple of days after the all too sudden collapse.

"He fell? Just like that?" Hermione asked on the way back to the Gryffindor-tower together with Ginny.

"Yeah. Probably would've gotten a concussion too if I didn't catch him."

Ginny looked a bit worried. "What if what dad got, Ron have too?"

Harry and Hermione looked at each other. They both knew the truth behind mr Weasley ailment, and couldn't possibly break Ginny's heart as well.

"No. It's not possible. Then the rest of your brothers would have gotten affected as well, right?" Harry reassured.

He saw on the look of Ginny's face that she didn't seem very convinced.

"Sure, but… that doesn't make me any less uncomfortable", said Ginny.

"He'll be fine, Ginny. Harry is just trying to find an excuse for adventure", Hermione said.

Harry glanced at her. "Yeah… sure."

Sitting high up on the rooftops of London with rain pouring down that night, Harry couldn't shake the feeling that something was very wrong. He'd known Ron for years and would know the instant he started acting different.

Was his father's death stressing him out that much? Or had he simply caught a fever? Or something worse?

At Hogwarts these times it was never certain which one it was. The clock struck three at night.

Maybe it was time to head back before he caught whatever Ron had. Besides, he was getting way too tired. He latched a string of web onto a nearby building and jumped off, quickly swinging through the streets.

He entered the Leaky Cauldron, completely soaked in rain-water and quickly got back to Hogwarts through the Floo Network.

Coughing and covered in ashes, he rolled out on the floor of Wilfred Jade's office floor. One hell of a night. He was exhausted, soaked and covered in ashes.

All he wanted was a quick shower and get into bed. Maybe he had to sneak his way there as well – the thought alone made him wish he'd for once listen to Hermione and not run out in the middle of the night after he'd barely got any sleep last night.

At least it was Saturday, so he didn't have to worry about…

Suddenly he felt a wand poking him in the back of his head.

Oh no.

"Don't move a muscle", the voice belonged to Jade. "The game's over."

Harry quickly got up on his feet, kicked the wand out of Jade's hand and webbed it to the ceiling. He breathed heavily through the soaked mask – the exhaustion started to get to him and he had to get out fast.

Jade smirked. "My, my. So rash and violent, full of naïveté and arrogance – no respect for other people."

"I'm leaving. There's nothing… nothing you can do to stop me."

"Is that what you think?"

Before Harry could react, he sent a quick blow to his chest, hurling him backwards into the wall with a loud thud, stone shattering off the wall.

With an intense pain in his chest, he started crawling away towards the exit. Every breath was like breathing fire.

"Do you really think you're the only one?" Jade walked towards him. "The only human being with powers? You are a fool – a fool and his life are soon parted."

Randomly shooting webbing at Jade, Harry tried to slow him down but to no avail; Jade dodged it like it was nothing.

He was cornered. Jade grabbed him by the throat and lifted him above the floor.

"Do you really think you can save these people? How can you be so _naïve?_ What are you trying to accomplish?"

Harry felt his own mask almost choking him while he helplessly struggled. Black dots slowly danced before his eyes.

"What… what are you?"

Jade threw him straight out through the door, landing on the floor – broken. But he had his chance now to escape – he took it. He heard Jade walking towards him, it was now or never.

With the last strength he could muster, Harry latched a webbing onto the ceiling, pulled himself towards it and crawled for all he was worth – escaping from his defeat.

It took much longer to crawl up the castle to Gryffindors tower than it used to – the injuries slowing him down.

Harry fell as a broken miserable pile onto the floor in the dormitory Hermione resided in. He could barely breathe. Maybe he should have went to the hospital wing instead, or maybe even Dumbledore himself and put a stop to this.

"Hermione", he pulled himself towards her bed slowly. "Hermione…"

He coughed up blood in the mask as he pulled himself up on her bed, waking her up in the process.

She looked at him, confused at first. "Harry? My God, Harry! We have to get you to the hospital wing! Why on Earth didn't you go there instead?"

"Dunno."

"Who did this to you?"

Harry collapsed down on the floor, feeling the darkness taking over.

"Harry? Harry!"

Harry heard a cowardly, trembling voice and another, colder voice conversing.

"Are you sure it's him, Wormtail?" the cold voice whispered.

"Yes, Master."

"Hm", Harry looked up at Wormtail. "Get Narcissa here. And tell her to bring Draco. We need to discuss further about the matter."

Harry sat down at a long, dark wooden table in as of a dark house. Wormtail stood a couple of feet away, shaking.

"Yes, Master. Is there a message?"

"Yes, we need to teach our young friend not to meddle in our affairs. He sent six of my best men to Azkaban, barehanded. He's certainly our priority target."

"Right away, Master."

Wormtail vanished out of sight. It didn't take long before he came back, followed by Narcissa and Draco.

"What's this about the boy, my Lord? Is it true…?"

"Sit down, Narcissa. You too, Draco."

They both sat down at the table. A wide smile spread across his face.

"We have a pest to take out."

 **AUTHORS END NOTES**

 **Wilfred Jade is more or less an OC, but I didn't want to make a canon teacher as a villain (like they always are, with the exception of Lupin). His corny way of speaking was very much influenced by Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin (amazing portrayal by the way) and that's more or less who I'd imagine while Jade is present.**

 **I also show Harry's weakness. I know Spider-Man can take a lot, he's amazingly (hah) strong but he holds back a lot, especially after nearly killing a person. Use Sam Raimi's Spider-Man for an example; he gets his ass kicked by the Green Goblin but when he's about to get killed, he seems to use most of his strength if not all and end the fight. That's what I try to portrayal and I hope it makes sense.**


	12. Chapter 11 - A Hero's Reward

Harry opened his eyes, slowly. He felt the warm embrace of a blanket. He saw Hermione sitting beside him, crying.

He was in the hospital wing, and his suit was off.

"Oh."

"I'm sorry, Harry. I had to", said Hermione behind a lot of tears. "I had no choice, I…"

He pulled her towards his chest, holding her tightly.

"It's okay. It's okay."

"It's not!" she yelled towards his chest. "I made things so much more worse for you."

Harry frowned in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

She looked up at him, with tears running down her face.

"I cut your suit up to get your out quickly… and then I had to lie straight up to professor Dumbledore's and professor McGonagall's faces about what happened", he gently brushed the tears off her face. "I told them that _Spider-Man_ did this to you."

He stared at her for a moment.

"I…", he lied down on his pillow, taking a deep breath – trying to process what she'd just told him.

"I'm sorry, Harry. I had no other choice. If I had brought you in as you were, they would've brought you in and there's no telling what would have happened…"

Harry put a hand on her cheek. "Hermione, listen. There's nothing you have to apologize for. You did good. It's my fault, I should've gone here in the first place to begin with. I wasn't thinking straight."

"Don't blame all of this on yourself", she smiled through the tears.

"Just go get some rest. I'll be fine", he said.

"You're sure?" she sniffed.

She stood up from the chair.

"Yeah. They are going to need a prefect with their head on straight much more than a nutcase in a suit."

She shook her head, smiling. "Don't say that. It's thanks to you that six Death Eaters are behind bars – and counting."

"Those guys? They are nothing compared to the criminals in the Muggle-world, and those guys are dumb to begin with."

Hermione bent down and kissed him.

"Alright, tough guy. I'll be back after breakfast. By the way, there's some people that left these for you", she gestured towards the smaller pile of gifts. "I bought a few of them during the Hogsmeade trip yesterday. I thought you would need it."

Harry sighed.

"Oh no. I missed the Hogsmeade trip? How long was I out?"

"Since Friday night. Don't worry, you have the entire term to go there."

Harry nodded and grabbed her hand. "Yeah, I know. Just go get some sleep. You look exhausted."

She gave him a comforting smile. "I'll be back before you know it."

"And Hermione… don't bother with the suit. I'll fix it."

Hermione widened her eyes and looked at him like he'd just ripped a page out of one of her books.

"Absolutely not. Last time you tried to fix it, you almost sat it on fire."

Harry chuckled. "Okay, you have a point."

"Now rest before I force you to it."

She let go of his hand and walked away, constantly looking over her shoulder at him with a guilty facial expression, possibly over what trouble she'd most likely had gotten him into.

Harry watched her vanish out of sight before he finally leaned back on the pillows with his eyes fixated on the ceiling.

Who exactly was Wilfred Jade?

He fell a sleep with that one thought circling in his head, worried sick what he would do if he found out what Spider-Man's real identity was.

Harry recovered quite fast thanks to his self-healing abilities and madam Pomfrey's nursing, but Ron was still in the hospital, apparently his condition only got worse over time.

No one knew what caused this, or why none of the usual treatment worked towards his symptoms.

Both Snape and Jade (whose intentions Harry really didn't know) had been giving Ron elixirs that should've cured him but to no avail.

Ron was mostly unconscious, and the few times he woke up he barely spoke or ate.

"Harry", a voice whispered and shook him. "Harry wake up!"

Harry opened his eyes, only to see Hermione stand above him in her night-gown.

"What?" he slurred. "I just went to sleep."

"There's something horrible that happened! Ron disappeared!"

She seemed very upset, almost panicking.

Harry frowned. "What do you mean disappeared?"

He noticed Ginny standing by the slightly opened door.

"I don't know! Madam Pomfrey said he was gone without a trace, and…"

"Seriously?" Harry groaned as he sat up, still tired after barely two hours of sleep. "I can't sleep anymore? And for crying out loud Hermione, put something on."

"Sorry, I-I knew you can figure this whole situation out. As soon as I heard it from Ginny, I had to tell you."

Even if he was dead tired, Ron could possibly be in danger – or worse.

Harry grabbed a blanket and put it around her.

"Alright. Here. I'll… go and see what I can do about this", he looked over her shoulder, seeing Ginny still standing there. "I'll take the other way out."

He put on his clothes, grabbed his costume and quickly webbed it to the outside of the window.

"Alright, stay put. And stay away from Jade."

He gave her a quick kiss before rushing out the door, past Ginny.

"I bet it's that spider-creep", Seamus said as he passed him. "First he sends Harry into hospital, now he's after Ron! Who's next to suffer?"

"Don't say that!" Lavender screamed.

"Who knows? By this time he's probably dead!"

Lavender burst out in tears.

Dean sighed. "Seamus…"

As Harry put his foot through the portrait, a hand grabbed him: Ginny.

"Harry, wait! Don't do anything stupid."

Harry forced a chuckle through his tiredness. "He's my best friend, Ginny."

"What will it help him if you're dead too?"

Harry shrugged. "I'm just going to have a quick look and then I'll be back."

"McGonagall said we should stay here, no one knows what happened…"

Harry got out of her grip and rushed to the closest window outside of the common room.

 **AUTHORS END NOTES**

 **I had a lot of ideas circling around what Hermione would've done when Harry ended up in the hospital wing.**

 **I was going to have her directly tell Dumbledore and McGonagall that Harry was Spider-Man, or even have Harry later after recovering,**

 **revealing his identity. But I stuck to having her trick everyone into thinking Spider-Man attacked Harry, thus reinforcing the fact that Spider-Man is indeed a menace and needs to be caught.**


	13. Chapter 12 - A World of Pain

With his suit on, Harry crawled in through the window of the hospital wing and dropped down softly on all four.

The entrance was now guarded by more Aurors than usually, with no madam Pomfrey in sight.

Harry crawled quickly but quietly over the floor, reached the bed Ron had been in and started looking for anything that may give away were Ron went.

A couple drops of blood on the floor beside the torn-up bed – was he attacked?

"Wow, and here I thought criminals couldn't sink lower. Hurting an unconscious person? Sheesh", he whispered to himself.

Most of the evidence seemed to be gone, with nothing to really go on. At times like this he wished electronics worked at Hogwarts – Hermione would be much more observant than him in this case.

"It's him! The assailant!" a sudden voice yelled; Harry turned around in an instant.

"Who? Me?" he spotted the two Aurors by the door, already pointing their wands at him.

Several spells flew by him as he flung himself through the air, landed on a wall, disarmed them both and webbed their wands to the wall. "Thanks guys, it was fun while it lasted. We should do this again sometime. Call me."

He latched a web on the wall above the window and swung himself out of the room. Back to looking after who took Ron, because unless he'd walked off in his sleep into the Forbidden Forest or something worse, it was doubtful he would just run away like that.

Tired from the rest of the night and pissed off at whoever kidnapped Ron, Harry sat himself down on a nearby gargoyle.

"I could go for a nap right now, but I guess that's gotta wait", he sighed while looking down over the grounds.

The only suspicious people at school right were Jade and Malfoy, but Harry doubted they had any agenda towards Ron.

Or maybe there was some grand scheme – neither the Weasley or Malfoy family liked each other, maybe Draco finally followed his father's footsteps and kidnapped Ron, Harry thought to himself. But what were the chances of that, really?

Harry groaned as he stood up, wondering if he'd pass out from exhaustion. He jumped off the gargoyle and swung away.

Harry searched through the grounds as thorough as he possibly could, before landing on a nearby tower. He'd failed his friend.

He looked up to the sky; dawn was breaking.

Who knew where he possibly could be right now? Tired and bothered by the fact he couldn't manage to find Ron anywhere, Harry returned to the Gryffindor-tower still in his suit.

Hermione came rushing in. She looked like she hadn't gotten much sleep either.

"You didn't take off your suit before coming in? Harry, where on Earth have you been?"

Harry sat down on a chair with his head low. "I tried, Hermione. I really tried. I've searched every corner of this place and I can't find him – or who took him."

"Did you try the Chamber of Secrets?" Hermione asked.

Harry looked up at her. "No, no. I'm not going down there again in a million years. With my luck I'll bump into some super-powered creep with water powers or something."

"Room of Requirements?"

"Haven't looked. But really, why take Ron to such an obvious hiding place?" Harry sighed while reloading the web-cartridges. "If I was a supervillain I'd take him into the Forbidden Forest – or worse, Myrtle's Bathroom."

"Harry…"

Harry stared up at her. "What?"

"The fact that you're joking about your friend's kidnapping isn't helping. He could be dead for all we know."

Harry rose up from the chair. "I'm just so sick and tired of chasing after a ghost all night. I looked for clues, I searched the entire castle-grounds for someone that doesn't exist!"

He felt upset, having an urge to just punch something.

"It's a long shot, but… what about Jade? He almost got you killed. What if he went after Ron? It's a possibility that we can wait and see what he's up to…"

"Hermione, I don't _want_ a theory! I don't have _time_ to wait!" Harry roared. "I need a plan right now, because every minute I waste, Ron could be in serious danger!"

Hermione looked to be almost scared, but got closer to him.

She put her hand on his arm that he immediately shook off. "Harry, you need to lie down. I-I'll call you in sick", yet again she tried to grabbed him, and he slapped her hand away.

Harry pointed a threatening finger at her. "No! I'm finding him, whether you like it or not! There has to be something I missed, maybe I can punch something out of that freak Jade."

Hermione raised her voice. "Are you out of your mind? Harry no, you're exhausted! You need sleep, you are not thinking straight! It's suicide going into a fight in your state!"

"Yeah? So is most things I do."

Harry gave her a last stare before jumping out of the window. This had to end now. He didn't have time to bide his time and strike when he had the perfect opportunity, and he was certain Jade was up to something.

Harry tracked down Jade, who at the moment was outside talking to Hagrid. Only if Hagrid knew what kind of man Jade was.

From here he couldn't tell what they were talking about. Hagrid laughed, Jade nodding with a smile and the two of them went separate ways.

Jade was on his way towards the castle, away from the direction Hagrid was going – the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest.

Harry squinted his eyes out of despise, and swung after him. He crawled along the walls and ceilings, all the way to the entrance hall, constantly keeping an eye at Jade who stopped when he spotted McGonagall.

"Good morning, Minerva", he smiled.

"Good morning to you, Wilfred", said McGonagall.

"Any luck with our missing student?"

McGonagall shook her head. "Unfortunately, no. Ronald Weasley seems as if the earth swallowed him whole."

"No leads at all? That's strange. You don't think…?"

Jade and McGonagall were looking at each other, like they were both thinking the same thing.

"Heavens, no. I hope the poor boy is alright. I damn the creature behind that mask."

"You and me both, Minerva. But we'll find mr Weasley before any harm will come to him."

Harry kept following him, down in the dungeons and in to Jade's office. Last time Harry was there, he'd gotten his ribcage shattered and a punctured lung along with a concussion but hopefully the odds were in his favor this time.

Hoping Jade wouldn't notice him, he hid in the dark corners of the ceiling and watching his every move.

Jade browsed through a couple of papers in his hands, shaking his head and sighing.

"You're looking for something in particular?"

Harry froze completely.

"Yes, I know you're here. You gave away yourself way too easily, spider", Jade turned around, looking straight at him.

Harry quickly moved across the ceiling to another corner. "Ron Weasley, _where_ is he?"

Jade chuckled softly. "I should ask you the same thing."

"Don't play games with me, Jade. That superhuman strength and the cheesy villain talk gives it all away."

Jade chuckled amusingly, correcting his robe.

"They're looking for you, you know. And they'll find you", he mumbled.

"Oh yeah? Did you take your villainous pills today, professor?" Harry landed with a loud thud on Jade's desk. "Because you seem out of cheesy things to tell me."

Harry grabbed Jade by the collar, pulling him closer.

"So where's all that power, huh? Aren't you going to strangle me to death, telling me when you were bullied in school and your mom didn't kiss you good night?" Harry lifted him from the ground.

Jade just smiled at him, chuckling under his breath.

Harry was out of patience – he didn't have time for this creep's games. With force he slammed him into the table, keeping a chokehold on him.

" _Where_ do you keep him?" Harry roared and punched Jade in the face. " _Where_?"

"You must be delusional, spider."

Harry punched him, again and again. " _Tell me!_ "

The door busted open, in a smaller army of Aurors flooded right in. "Don't move!"

Harry quickly avoided the jinxes and hexes sent his way, landed on the ceiling and started crawling. While still avoiding the spells flying past him, he landed on one of the Aurors, knocking them down.

He latched a web on the wall in front of him and pulled himself out of the office. An unpredicted explosion blew the same wall up in front of him, and knocked him down on the stone floor head first.

In a last desperate chance to escape, Harry blocked the door way with a giant web, which they burned down in an instant. Chains formed themselves out of nowhere, over his body, keeping him restrained to the ground.

"Take him out", a voice said above him. "This freak isn't going anywhere."

Harry strained himself in an attempt to break out of the chains, but was knocked out before he had the chance.

Harry heard a faint, muffled voice in the background.

"All we are trying to do is understand. Why do you keep doing these things?" the voice became clearer. "We understand – you want to help. But violence is not the way. And we absolutely do not condone kidnapping."

Harry slowly opened his eyes and steered his gaze up. He was tied to a chair, surrounded by a couple of Aurors, and in front of him sat Dumbledore behind his desk, staring at him.

He attempted to break the restraints, but he was far too dazed for that.

Amongst the midst of Aurors stood the heads of the houses along with the prefects; Hermione was there too.

"I didn't do it", Harry mumbled behind the mask. "Jade… Wilfred Jade…"

Dumbledore lightly smacked his lips. "I don't want to hurt you, and I'm doing my best to keep the Aurors from doing you any harm."

"Have you… have you lost your mind?" Harry stared straight at Dumbledore.

He felt a bit numb inside, just seeing Dumbledore turning against him.

"I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that", said Dumbledore.

Harry sighed, looking over at Hermione and then back to Dumbledore.

"It's not me you're after. I'm trying to find this guy, do you understand? And I believe Wilfred Jade have a connection to it all", Harry smacked his dry lips while thinking up an escape plan. "You may not like it, but I am trying to do what's right."

"And how did you… think you were suited to take this task upon yourself?" Dumbledore asked.

Harry desperately wanted to tell him who it was under the mask, but that would mean everyone around him would know too.

He took a deep breath. "I did. Because someone once told me… that it's our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. And that person was right. Otherwise I wouldn't be sitting here, would I?"

A dead silence followed.

Dumbledore just looked at him, not surprised in the least. Then he smiled.

"Ah. Those are some very wise words to live by, indeed" Dumbledore said and cleared his throat, winking at him. "Now if you excuse me, I have other matters to attend to. Please see yourself out. I'll be sure to keep my head down."

McGonagall looked at Dumbledore in confusion. "But Albus…"

Before anyone could react, Harry did a backflip, breaking the chair and the ties in the process – one of the parts was sent flying, knocking out on of the Aurors – and finally he webbed his way straight out through the window.

 **AUTHORS END NOTES**

 **Harry loses his temper easily, a lot due to the stress of having to deal with his two seperate lives, and and I wanted him to be a more furious Spider-Man who simply loses control when he gets angry. It could reflect a part of Voldemort's soul inside him, althought I never took that into consideration.**


	14. Chapter 13 - Time is Luck

Harry and Hermione were walking alone down an empty corridor late one evening – a few days after Dumbledore's talk with Spider-Man – heading away from the library.

Dumbledore seemed to have turned down the security a notch, at least against Spider-Man. But the Aurors were here on orders from the Ministry, so there were still some of them that tried to get a shot in.

Harry was just glad that he didn't have to worry about getting attacked by an army of Aurors again.

"So, you have anything special to do tomorrow?" Hermione held her books close to her chest while they slowly walked down the corridor. "Any web slinging planned for tomorrow night?"

Harry scratched his neck nervously. "Not what I know. I mean… I could make an exception."

Hermione smiled.

"You're sure? Isn't it usually at weekends when crime is at its highest?"

Harry scoffed.

"What?" she raised her eyebrows. "Aren't you allowed to enjoy some time off?"

"Not when my best friend is still missing."

She sighed. "Does that mean no date then?"

"Alright, where do you wanna go?"

"Harry, I know that Ron is missing, I'm not completely heartless."

"Oh, you have your moments."

She looked at him with a tiny smile in the corner of her mouth.

"What I'm trying to say is", she said as they stopped close to a nearby wall. "You have to realize who you are, Harry."

"Hermione, I know who I am alright?" she raised her eyebrows with a look of doubt on her face. "Sorry. I mean, do you really think I have multiple personalities?"

Hermione shook her head. "No, that's not what I meant! Just let Spider-Man take a day off. I want to spend the day with _you_ , Harry. You have to realize if this is going to work, you can't be Spider-Man all year around."

"Yeah, no I get that", he put his arms around her waist. "It's a painful job, but someone's gotta do it. But just one day, okay?"

She smiled. "That'll do, I suppose. And if you don't have complaints, maybe we can start early tonight?"

He smiled back and kissed her.

But it didn't take long before a sudden voice interrupted them.

"Potter, Granger!" Harry winced, pulling away from Hermione.

Only a couple of feet away stood professor McGonagall, furiously staring at them.

"Wandering around the castle? At this hour? Didn't you two learn anything from your previous years?"

Hermione was blushing. "Sorry, professor McGonagall! We just got back from the library. We'll be going now."

With haste they went past McGonagall, but as Harry went past her, he heard her say something under her breath.

"Filthy mud-blood lover."

Harry stopped and turned around, staring at McGonagalls back as she walked down the corridor. Something wasn't right, he could sense it from a long way.

He pulled his gloves and mask out of his pockets.

Hermione looked at him with confusion. "What?"

"I've got something to check out. You hurry back, I'll be back soon", he webbed his clothes to the ceiling, revealing the rest of his suit.

Hermione sighed.

"Don't be long."

He looked at her as he put on his gloves.

"I won't."

Lastly, he pulled down the mask over his head and webbed his way to the ceiling. As quick as he could, he followed professor McGonagall where she was headed: the library.

She was heading to the Restricted Section. He watched her from a safe distance as she entered through the gates before quickly catching up.

But instead of professor McGonagall, there stood Draco Malfoy. It seemed like he was searching through the books after something, constantly looking over his shoulder.

Confused, Harry got closer, right above him. Malfoy desperately threw out book after book on the ground, like he was in a hurry.

He went around to the other side of the shelf and started looking through the books there as well.

Maybe it was time to ask a few questions.

"Hey, pal. You're looking for me?"

Malfoy stared up, with his face covered in fear. Harry dropped from the ceiling, knocking Malfoy over on the ground.

He grabbed Malfoy by the collar. "Alright, butter-fingers. Spill it."

"W-what?"

Harry punched the floor beside Malfoy's head, making him yell out some sort of squealing noise. It felt great seeing him on the other side of the fence for once.

"Wrong answer!"

"I-I'm sorry! I'm so sorry, I…"

Harry loosened his grip, pulling Malfoy up on his feet.

He dusted off Malfoys shoulders. "Alright, buddy. You can go now, that's all I wanted to hear."

Malfoy was shaking out of fear, looking at him with uncertainty. "I-I can go?"

" _No!_ " Harry grabbed him again, smashing him into the nearby bookshelf, knocking down a few books in the process. "Not only did you make a mess, you also had the disguise of Minerva McGonagall! _Why?_ So you could steal some books?"

"H-he told me to!"

" _Who?_ " Harry slammed Malfoy into the bookshelf once.

Malfoy's lips were shuddering, but only getting out unintelligible nonsense.

Harry sighed. "Alright", he webbed Malfoy stuck to the ceiling.

"Y-you're insane!" Malfoy stuttered.

Harry sat beside him on the ceiling. "Not such a big bad bully now after all, huh? Now tell me: who sent you here? Or do you want me to ask someone else?"

Malfoy gave out a high-pitched scream. "No! Don't go after my mom, please! She have nothing to do with this! Please don't!"

He patted Draco's forehead. "I doubt that, Draco-boy. Just tell me, and daddy won't get a new cellmate tomorrow morning. I promise."

Malfoy stared at him for a few seconds, before opening his mouth again.

"W-wil…"

Harry yawned. "Hurry up, will you? I don't got all night to hang here."

"Wilfred… J-jade. He… he wanted me to get some old book in here!"

Harry grabbed him by his hair, making him yelp out of pain. "For what? Tell me, or you can wave goodbye to dear old mom!"

"No, no! Okay! Okay! H-he said it will give me powers! Like yours! Something about extracting spider-venom! That's all I know!" Malfoy just looked at him, scared out of his mind.

Harry let go of him, half-shocked, half-panicked. He took a few breaths, trying to come to senses with what Malfoy just said.

"Alright, so where is he?"

"The dungeons. His office – it have a hidden door, the switch is behind the desk. Please, let me go!"

"Thanks chump", Harry made his way towards one of the windows. "I'll be sure to send some sweets for your co-operation. Actually, no I won't."

Malfoy started screaming. "Don't leave me here! Please! Help! Help…"

Harry webbed his mouth shut. "Eh, the webbing dissolves within an hour, you'll be fine."

He slammed the window open and swung away, heading towards the dungeons.

Malfoy hadn't been lying; there was a switch to a hidden door behind Jade's desk. Harry watched as a part of the wall slowly slid open, revealing a narrow path leading into the darkness.

"This guy ticks all the boxes for the cliché villain. Seriously, even Umbridge is more creative", he shuddered just thinking of the pink room filled with kittens along its walls.

He walked into the darkness and as he did, a light lit up one by one before him.

"Alright, what's next? Is he going to talk to me over a speaker, mocking and threatening me before we fight?"

Harry threaded slowly, watching his every step. As the narrow path opened up to an open, lit-up room, Harry heard snoring and spotted someone strapped to a gurney, seemingly unconscious.

The walls were lined with glass-shelves filled with odd armory and weaponry he never had seen before; maybe stolen from the Muggle military. It looked too high-tech to be any of the old armors at Hogwarts.

Mostly everything was laced with emerald green, with a bit of grey silver in there; slick and sharp swords, some sort of flying device with bindings for a pair of feet, orange bombs, green armor and a whole bunch of other things he couldn't put a name on.

But what he didn't understand was: how would it work within Hogwarts walls if it all relied on electricity?

Maybe Hermione could figure out what it was and who it belonged to. He grabbed some sort device, small enough to fit in his pocket.

His eyes directed towards the strapped down person.

"Ron? Is that you?" Harry rushed towards the gurney.

It was indeed Ron, snoring away even if his life was in danger. A needle was stuck in his arm, connected to some kind of life-support, constantly making a beeping noise.

Harry shook him desperately, trying to wake him even though he knew it was an impossible task.

"Hey! Ron, wake up!"

Ron didn't move. There was only one thing to do, then.

He undid the straps with nervous and desperate fingers, lifting Ron over his shoulder. "Don't worry, we'll get out of this horror-show."

 **AUTHORS NOTES**

 **It's messed up when the bullied becomes the bully. And this is exactly what happens; after years of Draco bullying him and his friends, Harry finally has a chance to get some payback. He essentially lets his powers go to his head.**


	15. Chapter 14 - The Calm Before the Storm

There was nothing that stopped him on his way to the hospital wing; no traps or anything. Maybe Jade didn't actually expect him to find Ron already or at all. As Harry walked towards the hospital, he passed by several Aurors and the real McGonagall conversing with one of them.

"By Merlin's beard!" she exclaimed as he walked towards her.

She just stared at him as he passed by her, but quickly caught up to him. "Mr Weasley! Is he alright? What happened?"

"He's alive, that's all I know", Harry mumbled.

In the hospital wing, he gently put Ron down on one of the beds, and slowly backed away as madam Pomfrey came rushing.

McGonagall looked at Harry in both fear and appreciation, staring at him like he would be a ticking bomb that for the moment wasn't active.

"I-I do not know how to thank you for this, mr… mr…"

"Spider-Man", said Harry before quickly jumping up to the roof, climbing his way towards the window and leaving a confused McGonagall behind.

Next day, Harry and Hermione went together to Hogsmeade during the regular Hogsmeade trip. As they walked down the snowy and busy streets holding hands, Harry told her about last night.

"You're saying professor McGonagall didn't catch us kissing in that corridor last night?" Hermione asked with raised eyebrows. "Thank God."

"Exactly. It was Malfoy, using some kind of disguise. But it didn't last long, so I had… a little chat with him."

Hermione chuckled under her breath. "Chat? As in beating him up? You didn't hurt him, did you?"

"Uh, only a little."

Hermione pushed him lightly, looking at him with a severe gaze. "Harry!"

"What? I might have scarred him for life, that's it! He was screaming and begging – you should've seen him."

"No, I really shouldn't have."

Harry frowned. "Do I really look that scary with the mask on?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Isn't that the point?"

"Well you designed it, you tell me."

She sighed.

"Let's just go to _Three Broomsticks_ , I'm freezing."

"Sure."

They entered _Three Broomsticks_ and they quickly found an empty table.

"I'll go order for us", Hermione said as she hung her jacket on the chair.

Harry sat down and waited. He looked towards the corner of the inn, where Ginny and Dean were sitting and making out like that was more important than her brother's life. He frowned, wondering if there was something going on between Ron and her.

Lavender and the entire Weasley family had been at Hogwarts, after being worried sick about Ron's whereabouts – even Hermione had visited him multiple times even if they'd never seemed to agree with each other.

He'd thought out of everyone to worry about Ron, it would be his family, but Ginny didn't seem bothered at all.

"What are you looking at?" Hermione sat down with two mugs of butter beer. She looked over her shoulder, at Ginny and Dean before looking back at him. "I know, she haven't seen him since last night when he was out."

"I thought siblings cared for each other."

"Doesn't seem that way", said Hermione. Harry took a sip from his mug. "Or maybe she's just shaken after seeing him again."

"Maybe", Harry kept an eye at Ginny.

Hermione looked at him with a firm gaze. "Harry, I know that look when I see it. You don't need to tail everyone that act a little bit out of the ordinary."

"Yeah."

"You're not listening are you?"

"Of course I am."

"I thought this was going to be about us, not Spider-Man."

Harry quickly looked her way. "What? Yeah, no I just got distracted."

Hermione lightly rolled her eyes. "Well, be glad I didn't drag you to the place we went to for our first date. That place was dreadful."

He'd rather not remember Puddifoot's Teashop ever again, much less set his foot in there; especially not after Hermione had a heated argument with Cho Chang, Harry's old crush.

"Harry, are you alright? You're looking a bit pale", Hermione took a big quaff from her mug.

"I'm fine", Harry mumbled. "I just never want to see that place again in my life."

Hermione laughed lightly. "I think we both can agree on that."

A moment of silence followed, before Harry thought of something to say.

"So, you want something to eat?"

"Yeah, sure. Just not a lot – it's dinner soon."

As Harry went to order food, he couldn't help but overhear Malfoy's conversation with Pansy Parkinson at the table close to him.

"That freak broke my arm and gave me a bunch of bruises. If dad wasn't in Azkaban I could have the spider-freak burned out of whatever hole he hides in", said Malfoy.

"Didn't you tell professor Snape?" Pansy asked.

Malfoy scoffed loudly. "Like he can do anything about it. Besides, trying to get that damned book for professor Jade almost got me expelled. It's only thanks to him that I'm still here."

"Will that be all?" Rosmerta looked at Harry with an impatient look as more customers were lining up behind him.

"Yes, please."

Harry paid up and brought the plates to their table.

After the small meal, Harry and Hermione went to a less public place, where they sat down on a snowy rock and looking out over the surroundings. From here you could see the Shrieking Shack in the distance.

"Remember this place?" Hermione and grabbed his hand.

"Yeah", Harry grinned. "We went here on our first date – within range of the Shrieking Shack."

She smiled. "Not so very romantic, is it?"

"It have its charms to it."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm pretty sure."

Hermione pulled herself up in his lap with her arms around his neck. "Well, I can find a better spot."

Harry smiled and shook his head "No need, it's perfect", he put his arms around her and was just about to move in for the kiss when a voice interrupted them.

"So here you two love-birds sit", Malfoy approached them with just Goyle at his side. "I'd say you two were as made for each other; both just as gullible and senseless. But what can you expect from mud-bloods as yourself?"

Harry sighed. "Piss off, Malfoy."

"That's not very nice is it? Not surprised, really. Mud-bloods tend to have that effect on you."

Harry had to stop the impulse to just jump at his throat and choke him out, but did so just barely.

"You wanna keep your other arm?" Harry asked angrily and Malfoy scoffed. "Then leave."

Malfoy grimaced in pain. "Keep talking, Potter."

"He's not worth it", Hermione stood up from the rock and pulled Harry with her. "Let's go somewhere else not filled with rats, Harry."

As they walked away, Harry looked over his shoulder just to see Malfoy staring after them.

 **AUTHORS NOTES**

 **I just really love exploring characters, hence this chapter being seen more as filler.**


	16. Chapter 15 - Down Came the Goblin

Harry woke up that same night in cold sweat from a recurring nightmare, with both his scar and spider-sense on the fritz.

Hermione muttered something beside him and rolled over on her stomach. Harry silently went out of bed, put in his contacts and stumbled his way into the bathroom to wash his face.

For a few minutes he leaned over the sink with a sick feeling consuming him from within. He'd never felt this kind of pain and awareness at the same time, and wondered if he would throw up any second.

Taking several deep breaths, he stared down into the sink and tried to fight the pain back. It was like several alarms ringing inside his head while someone poured burning coal on his forehead, and the more breaths he took, the more painful it was.

A silent knock sounded towards the door. "Harry, is that you?"

"Yeah?" he groaned.

"Are you alright?" Hermione asked.

Harry groaned as opened the door. Outside stood Hermione, with only a blanket wrapped around her.

He stumbled out of the bathroom only for Hermione to catch him.

"You don't look very good."

Harry shook his head as she led him towards his bed.

"Nightmare?" she whispered.

"Something… something that way, yeah", Harry said between breaths as she helped him lie down.

Hermione looked anxiously at him as she started to put her clothes on. "You want me to get you anything? Water? Do I need to bring you to the hospital wing?"

He nodded. "Yeah, just water would…"

A loud cackling, followed by a green blur quickly going past the fogged up window. Harry felt the awful pain turn into sudden fear. The pain in his scar was gone as if it never had been there, instead his spider-sense went up a notch.

"What?" Hermione just stared at him.

Slowly, Harry sat himself up.

"That voice…", Harry said, ending what he was about to say abruptly.

Hermione frowned her forehead.

"Voice? Harry, you need to lie down. You are just stressed out…"

Another cackle sounded, louder this time. Something was approaching the window, and fast.

"Hermione."

"Yes, I'm here. Now lie down before…"

All of his senses told him to move out of the way, and without a second hesitation he threw himself over Hermione and down on the floor; in the very same moment an explosion combusted, barely touching them.

Screaming was heard over the raging flames as Harry's ears were ringing. Hermione yelled something at him, but he didn't hear a word. He saw Dean, Seamus and Neville run past them.

He stumbled up on his feet, pulling Hermione up with him. In through the giant hole in the wall, a person hovered in on one of those flying devices Harry had seen in Jade's hideout.

"Get out!" Harry yelled at Hermione, who refused to move. "Get out now! I'll handle this!"

He pushed Hermione away from him, towards the exit. She gave him a quick, distressing look before rushing out through the door.

Harry looked towards the person, slowly getting closer to him.

Through the smoke a man was revealed, armored from top to toe and with a big visor in the helmet, like a ski-helmet but much bigger.

"What do you want?" Harry slowly backed up.

Behind the helmet a cackle was heard. "A world without _Spider-Man_ ". his visor lit up green and missiles fired at him and he dodged the explosion just narrowly.

"I have waited so long for this. You took _everything,_ Harry! _Everything!_ "

The glider spun around, knocking objects over and breaking furniture. In the next moment, guns extended out from the bottom of the glider and fired at him, he dodged quickly towards his trunk, grabbed his costume and web-shooters and rolled under the bed as the bullets ruined everything they touched.

"I'll kill you and everyone else in this place for what you did to me! Do you know that? Do you even _care_?"

Harry got his costume and web-shooters on as fast as he possibly could and jumped out, landing on his trashed bed.

"I don't know, it seems like you're looking in the wrong place for the kind of _care_ you need!"

With guns firing at him, Harry threw himself through the air and grabbed him from behind. "I'm sure you don't need this, right?" he pulled out a hose connecting torso and the helmet.

The masked man tried to shake him off. "Get off!"

"I would, but you're not in my taste."

The glider spun around with a violent turn, Harry got shaken off and flew straight out through the door, landing on the floor close to a group of younger students.

"Ow."

Several of the younger students screamed when they saw him.

Harry groaned. "No, it's alright. Don't help me or run or anything, just keep screaming…"

Slowly he got up – only to quickly web down one of the missiles flying at him.

"Really? You thought that was going to work _again_?", the missile exploded without warning and sent him through the railing and down on the floor of the common room with a thud.

If it hadn't been for his powers, he'd most likely would've been unconscious at this point – or dead.

"I'm running out of ways to say ow."

He quickly looked up, spotting McGonagall half-running through the Fat Lady's portrait, followed by Hermione and other students. They stopped as they saw what was going on in front of their eyes.

Harry stumbled up on his feet as the man on the glider slowly approached him. He looked around the room; too many people, way too many people in here. His eyes fixated themselves on the window.

"I think we need to take this outside, don't you agree?"

Harry jumped straight through the window, with the man flying after him. As he swung in between two walls, a missile flew right past his head and exploded in the distance.

"Dude… enough with the rockets!"

The whirring sound of the machine-gun started and Harry flung himself high up into the air to avoid it, attached webbing to one of the towers and threw himself feet first towards the man, kicking him straight off the glider.

He latched his webbing on the man, pulling himself in and grabbing onto him as the glider found it's owner's feet again.

Harry started punching his visor, over and over again while getting punches back.

"You ruined so many lives, Harry! Including mine!" roared the man behind the visor. "He told me _everything_!"

With yet last punch, the visor cracked and the green light died.

The man lost control over the glider, making it and them both spiraling out of control, straight through a window. "No! You'll kill us both!"

They spun right through bookshelves, tables and other furniture; all getting chopped up and broken. Several Aurors threw themselves on the floor as they came through. Pages of books rained down over them as they continued to spin out of control.

As best as he could, Harry tried to steer them away from the Aurors. "Watch out, look out! Crazy tin can and spider coming through!"

With one last punch, the visor broke and revealed the face underneath and in the progress he crashed the glider into the wall, throwing them both on the floor.

Harry groaned, stumbling up on his feet after the crash. He limped his way over to the armored man. The Aurors had left the room, probably for backup.

"I think your ride ends here", Harry mumbled as he grabbed him by the collar.

But he couldn't believe who was staring back at him, grinning with a wide malicious smile: it was Ron, his best friend, staring crazily at him.

"What…?" Harry let go off him in shock and backed away a few steps.

Ron started to chuckle and broke out into a maniacally laugh. He stopped laughing and just smiled.

"It all makes sense doesn't it?" Ron struggled up in a sitting position.

"I honestly don't know what to think", Harry started to feel more disappointed than shocked over the fact that his best friend would go down this path.

Ron laughed.

Harry crouched down in-front of him. "This – this isn't you, Ron. This isn't you."

"And you're wrong!" Ron yelled. " _This_ is who I'm meant to be!"

"We'll fix this, Ron", Harry nodded, still shaken up. "We'll fix this and everything is going to be alright."

In the background Harry heard the hasty footsteps heading towards him.

"In the library? Are you sure?" echoed McGonagall's voice.

"Yes, but recent events have made us uncertain as to who we apprehend", said one of the Aurors.

"Uncertain?" exclaimed McGonagall loudly. "Albus approved of the Spider-Man's activity – he's no threat to neither the school or its residents."

"Wait till you see this."

Harry turned his head towards Ron again.

"It's going to be alright, Ron."

McGonagall followed by more Aurors and Hogwarts-staff rushed in to the library, but immediately stopped when they saw him and Ron.

Ron frowned in anger. "Ron Weasley's dead! Only the Goblin…"

One straight punch to Ron's face and he was knocked out. Harry sighed.

"I've heard enough out of you", he mumbled while standing up.

"By Merlin's beard…", whispered McGonagall.

Harry turned around, both beat and tired.

"You guys take it from here? Don't worry, he's completely harmless – for now", Harry quietly swore over his injured leg. "I've got to go."

He swung his way out through the same window they'd crashed in through, off on his way to the Gryffindor tower.

 **AUTHORS END NOTES**

 **I tried to combine New Goblin (Sam Raimi's Spider-Man) and The Goblin from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 into a Goblin and blending them with Ron, creating something truly horrifying.**

 **Fun fact: Very early on I was considering to have Arthur Weasley as the Green Goblin, but it wouldn't create the same dynamic between them as it does with Harry and Ron.**


	17. Chapter 16 - Spider-Man: Hero or Menace?

In the morning, the first thing Hermione did was bash a newspaper in Harry's face.

"Ow! Have you gone completely mental?"

"That's what I'm supposed to ask you! The entire library is in pieces because of you!"

Harry just stared at her. "Is that why you hit me in my face with everything you got? For crying out loud Hermione, it'll get fixed in no-time."

"That chaos wasn't an ordinary brawl! You almost got yourself killed last night! What were you thinking?"

"I tend to do that in bed, I can't help…", she bashed him again.

" _Please!_ Stop, just for once with the jokes!" she yelled at him.

He looked at her and saw she was crying.

"I'm not in the mood for this, Harry. I really am not."

Harry just looked at her and she looked back.

"But this have happened before. I get shot at, I break a few bones, dark wizards try to kill me on a daily basis, sometimes I end up in the hospital-wing after a Quidditch match – the list goes on forever. And not once have you broken down like this!"

"I'm just scared. That's all", she mumbled and swiped tears from her eyes.

"Just sit down and relax. I can understand you're scared. I really can."

Harry tried to put his arm around her, but she backed away.

"No, you don't. Because you never get it. As Spider-Man you are so _unbelievably_ reckless and never use your brain to do anything – you think you're invincible – while as Harry you're the complete opposite. Sooner or later, I will find your corpse beside my bed. _That's_ what scares me. At this rate, I can't take it."

Harry scoffed.

"Really? Hermione, there's no need to be melodramatic. I get it, the library is trashed but you don't need to take out your anger at me."

"You know it's true", she said under her breath.

And with one last deadly stare she turned around and went off on her way.

Harry stood there and stared after her, slowly thinking over what she just had told him.

Later Harry sat by a window in the boy's dormitory and looked out over the snow-covered grounds. He bit his lip while glancing down at the mask in his hand.

Was she right? Was he really that different as Spider-Man?

He heard the door suddenly open, and quickly shoved his mask down in his pocket. It was just Hermione.

"Harry, we need to talk."

He turned around to face her. "Oh, are you here to hit me with a newspaper some more?"

She quietly sat down on his bed.

"Harry, I know I overreacted; I was very upset. But you have clearly made some dangerous enemies that turned Ron against you. Who will they go after next? My parents? Your aunt? Me?"

Harry shook his head. "It's me he wants. Not you, not our families."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Hermione, this is my best friend we're talking about. I know Ron; he's stubborn enough to keep a grudge against a single person."

"I hate to say this but, maybe he's not Ron anymore."

A moment of silence followed. Harry avoided her gaze.

Finally, Hermione moved closer and grabbed his hand. "You need to stop this, Harry. I don't condone your actions in that suit, but there has to be something that Ron can tell you before it goes too far."

"What about the Aurors? Surely full-grown, experienced wizards can find a way to get him to talk", said Harry.

"He's still in the hospital after the fight you two had."

Harry smiled. "Yeah, we left the library in pieces, didn't we?"

She laughed softly. "You did. I would give you detention for the rest of your life if you weren't needed out there. Instead, I decided to improve your webbing", she handed him his web-shooters. "It should be a little stronger than before."

He snickered.

"You're brilliant, Hermione. Frightening, but brilliant."

Hermione blushed a bit. "I try my best to be both."

In full costume, Harry dropped down beside Ron's bed. Ron didn't look as crazy anymore, but didn't look very happy to see him.

"Here to beat me up some more?" mumbled Ron, lying down on his bed.

"We need to talk."

"No, we don't", Ron wasn't looking at him at all and instead kept staring at the ceiling. "I know enough."

Harry sighed and crouched down beside him. "What did he do to you, Ron?"

"Jade?" Ron scoffed. "He showed me exactly what kind of person you are."

"What do want to know? Did I miss something?"

Ron turned his head and stared right at him. "You're so full of crap, Harry. Do you really think I'll believe you if you told me?"

"I-I'm not following."

"Well you'd better stay the hell away from me."

"Is that a threat?" Harry didn't like the feeling he got from looking at Ron: the sense of dread and pain – the pain seeing what his best friend had become.

Ron shook his head slowly.

"Then how can I help you if you're not telling me?" Harry started feeling desperate; Ron was acting like he'd already told him everything.

"He captured and tortured me for what felt like _months!_ Deep down I thought to myself: _Maybe Harry and Hermione will find me. They're smart enough to do that._ I was wrong!" mumbled Ron. "Do you have any idea what that feels?"

Harry couldn't exactly say he knew how it felt to be held captive and tortured for weeks.

"Jade injected something in me, and turned me into a monster."

Harry swallowed hard.

"Ron, you're not a monster – you're not."

" _Stop lying!_ " Ron roared, pulling himself up from the bed. "Stop with your _lies_ and _tricks_! You stole Hermione from me, and now I'm a freak because of you! He captured me because of _you!_ "

Harry was as paralyzed. He just looked at Ron, beginning to understand how the pieces came together.

"You never told me that you liked her during all those years! You never told me you were Spider-Man! _You never tell me anything!_ " roared Ron with spit flying. " _How_ do you live with yourself?"

He heard someone's footsteps approaching, and the door opening.

Harry slowly stood up and backed away. "I've gotta go."

"Yeah! Turn your back on me, like you usually do!"

He jumped out of the window and swung away back to the Gryffindor-tower.

The days passed by, until Christmas time were just around the corner. Hogwarts got decorated by the staff like it usually did around Christmas time.

Harry had been taking photos of Spider-Man while fighting crime on the streets of London; he'd decided to yet again go with them to the Daily Prophet.

"Potter? Potter!" Vernon Dursley suddenly roared as Harry was in deep thought about how this year's Christmas would be to celebrate. "Potter! You can day dream when you get home, not at my desk."

"Sorry, mr Dursley."

Harry had a good reason to wander off into his own thoughts, as this year him and Hermione and her family would celebrate Christmas at aunt Petunia's apartment. Harry had gone to Hermione's home last Christmas with aunt Petunia, and Ron didn't exactly want to live under the same roof as him, so they'd settled for something different instead.

"Sorry? What's sorry? Does it sell more newspapers? No it don't, boy", Dursley pulled out a piece of paper out of his desk and quickly scribbled something down. "Let's see – I'll give you forty-five pounds, no more. Should be enough to buy you something nice just in time for the Holidays! Give this to my secretary just outside, and she'll pay you."

Harry didn't argue, since he knew it was pointless.

He hurried back to Hogwarts; although ever since Jade had caught him using the only fireplace open to the Floo Network, he had to use the one in Hogsmeade instead.

"Hi. You took longer than I expected", Hermione mumbled as he tripped through the window and bumped into the wall beside her.

"Yeah, no I had to listen to Dursley talk for ages about how much he hates Spider-Man", he sighed.

Hermione laughed softly.

As they started to walk towards the Great Hall, she began to give him weird looks.

"Is there something bothering you, Harry?"

"No, not at all", Harry cleared his throat and straightened himself.

"It's Ron, isn't it?"

Harry quickly looked at her. "What? No! Yes, I mean not my main thought. Of course I'm worried about Ron, but I was thinking more about your parents."

Hermione looked at him with a mischievous grimace. "My parents?"

"Well, they don't seem to like me very much."

She looked almost surprised. "Of course they do! It's just your fame that puts them off, thinking you seem a little… inconsiderate?"

Harry scoffed. "Yeah, that makes me feel a lot better. Thanks, Hermione."

Hermione laughed.

"Just try to stay on their good side and don't make too many jokes. And especially don't eat candy in front of them; they'll never stop nagging you about your teeth for the rest of the day."

"I'll make a note of that."

 **AUTHORS END NOTES**

 **This is were it truly shows that Hermione is scared for Harry getting himself killed as Spider-Man. Sure, he's been in mortal danger countless times before but this time he constantly goes to face the danger, and because he sometimes lets his powers go to his head, it's only a matter of time before he makes a mistake and gets killed.**


	18. Chapter 17 - A White Christmas

When the day finally arrived, Harry and Hermione took the train together with the other students back to London.

At the train station they got picked up by aunt Petunia, who warmly hugged them both.

"Did you kids enjoy the term? Learned something new?" she asked them while they were driving through what was almost a snow storm.

"Yeah… uh, a lot", when he got a quick gaze from Hermione.

"And I hope you don't spend too much time together during your studies, right?" aunt Petunia said with a smirk.

"No, but you know Harry. He'll never take his eyes off me even if his life would be in danger", said Hermione and aunt Petunia laughed softly.

Afterwards, Hermione and aunt Petunia had a discussion about possibly every topic that was currently relevant: from the plans for Christmas and things that had happened at school to Hermione's parents and the snow storm.

It didn't take long until they finally stepped into Harry's room, and Harry could rest his ears.

Immediately he fell down in his bed with a sigh.

"What?" laughed Hermione as she sat down beside him. "I can't help that your aunt likes to talk with me. I had to bring her up to speed about things."

"Yeah, yeah."

Hermione lied down with her head on his shoulder.

"Your aunt said she'll need help to bring out the Christmas tree from the basement later", she said.

"Yes, I heard. I was just not paying much attention."

Harry picked up his phone that was still lying on his bedside and charged it. About twenty missed calls from Tony Stark.

"Maybe you should call _him_ first, though", she said with a crooked smile.

Harry frowned and smiled. "Nah, he can wait."

"Harry…", Hermione said in a serious manner.

"Alright, fine."

Harry jumped out of bed and tried to call Stark, but got no answer.

"No answer, I'll try later", he threw the phone back on the bedside.

Hermione leaned on her elbow, looking at him. "Maybe he's busy with something?"

Harry shrugged and threw himself down beside her again.

"Maybe", he said with a smile.

He moved closer to her. He put his hand on her hip and tried to kiss her, but she pulled away.

He looked confused at her, surprised over her reaction. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing", he tried to kiss her again only for her to reject him again. "I'm not in the mood right now, Harry. Maybe later, okay?"

He couldn't help but feel a bit hurt on the inside, and didn't want Hermione to notice it so he decided to leave the room.

He slowly nodded and got up from the bed. "Okay, I'll go out and see if aunt Petunia needs help."

Christmas Day came around, and a before lunch-time both Harry and Hermione got ready for the Christmas meal they were going to have with aunt Petunia and Hermione's parents.

"It's not a formal dinner, Harry", Hermione laughed after Harry had combed his hair and checked his shirt for almost twenty minutes.

"To me, it is", Harry looked at her over his shoulder.

She sighed. "They are dentists, Harry – not fashion designers. You don't need a tie."

"They could be circus-performers and it wouldn't matter, Hermione", he quickly looked at himself in the mirror and pulled off his tie. "Actually, no; you're right, I don't."

Not long after they got themselves ready, the door-bell rang and aunt Petunia opened.

In walked mr and mrs Granger, both hugging their daughter as soon as they spotted her. Aunt Petunia greeted them welcome, they shook hands with her and Harry, before they headed to the table.

After they sat down, Hermione gave Harry a meaningful look which told him to not screw things up. Harry shrugged back as an answer.

"It's a very nice apartment, Petunia", said mrs Granger. "I must say the decorations are very well done."

Aunt Petunia gave a small laugh. "I get that a lot these days. Thank you."

As the meal went on, so did the discussion. Harry dreaded for the inevitable moment when he had to say more than a few words during it.

It wasn't that he thought that Hermione's parents were awful people to talk to, it was just that he was scared to say something stupid in front of them – especially since they didn't seem to like him very much.

He didn't blame them; he could only imagine how it must feel to have a daughter that had a such famous boyfriend, especially after how the Daily Prophet had painted him as crazy liar last year.

Hermione suddenly looked at Harry. "You've not said much, Harry."

Mr Granger lit up and looked up at Harry. "Why yes. Hermione talks so much about you, it's hard to not hear about you. She says you're excellent at self-defense and sports. Do you mind specifying what areas you have mastered?"

"Uh…"

"Excuse my husband, Harry", mrs Granger said with a comforting smile. "He always gets so formal during dinners with others."

"I just want to be polite. Is that too much to ask for, honey?", said mr Granger and shook his head. "Well, if you don't mind answering my question, Harry."

Harry felt a bit confused, looking from mr Granger to Hermione and back.

"Well, I… uh, I wouldn't say excellent", Harry began nervously.

Hermione smiled. "He's just being shy."

"Well, uh. The self-defense is more so general defense than physical, if that makes sense. What I'm trying to say is, it's not martial-arts. And the, uh Quidditch – a form of football…"

Time passed by much quicker than Harry had expected after he got a bit more comfortable around Hermione's parents and could actually talk to them without being overly nervous.

After dinner they opened their presents together, after which they spent time in the living room talking, laughing, drinking and eating – just overall having a good time.

Harry couldn't remember the last time he'd been this happy and relaxed, and actually enjoy himself and not having to constantly worry about his surroundings.

The only thing that was missing now was his best friend who hated his very existence, but he didn't let it bother him for too long.

As the others prepared the family photo, Harry was just on his way to refill his glass but on the way he stopped in front of a window when he heard the sounds of sirens.

A couple of ambulances and two police-cars sped by down on the street. Obviously something bad had happened; but he couldn't do anything about it because Spider-Man was a selfish prick who was too busy celebrating Christmas with his friends and family instead of helping people in need.

"Are you coming, Harry?" Hermione called.

"Yeah, in a second."

Very late in the evening closer to midnight, Harry sat in the couch and watched TV while Hermione had dozed off in his lap with her arms loosely around his waist.

He felt pretty sleepy himself but tried to keep himself away, even if the occasional thought snuck up on him that he could just fall asleep here on the couch instead.

In the background aunt Petunia and Hermione's parents were still talking by the kitchen table, very loud and with a lot of laughing involved.

Harry had a nice thought about going to the warm and soft bed, so he finally could shut his eyes. He tried to stifle a yawn but didn't succeed very well, which drew the attention from the table.

"I think someone needs to sleep", said aunt Petunia with a smile.

"Yeah", Harry mumbled and shut the TV off with the remote.

"But they do look so adorable", said mrs Granger. "Can you take a photo of them, Petunia – if you don't mind, Harry?"

"Stop torturing the poor boy, honey; he's tired, so are we all", said mr Granger with a concerning look at his wife who seemed to have one too many drinks tonight.

"Oh for…", Harry sighed; he was so tired and just wanted to sleep for once.

Aunt Petunia came rushing with her camera.

Harry rolled his eyes tiredly. "No, no. Nope. It's fine. I don't need sleep, do I?"

"Relax. It's just a photo, sweetie", aunt Petunia said with a short laugh.

The camera flashed in his face a few times, until she was satisfied.

"Can I sleep now?" Harry asked irritably. "We'll bring in our presents in the morning to my room, I swear."

Aunt Petunia smiled. "Don't worry, you can go."

Harry lifted Hermione up in his arms and stood up, beginning to slowly walking to his room.

Mr Granger hastily stood up from his chair. "You need help with that?"

"No, thanks. I got it."

After he'd gotten Hermione in bed and tucked her in, he closed his door and walked towards the window, just looking out over the streets.

It was very tempting, but he was way too tired. He yawned and pulled the curtains over the window, and was just about to lie down in his bed when his phone rang.

As quickly as possible to not wake Hermione up, he answered it and distanced himself from the bed.

"Hello?"

"I was expecting you to pick up sooner or later", answered Tony Stark's voice in the phone; he didn't sound very happy.

"Yeah…"

"What? You think just because you're a kid you can ignore people however you want? Just so you know, I'm late to my midnight Christmas party because of you."

"I was at school, alright? I couldn't exactly pick up your calls; bad reception", Harry said.

"Sure, and I'm uncle Sam. I've been keeping an eye on you, kid."

Tony must've monitored him during his occasional trips to London.

"Oh."

"Yeah, _oh_. Do you realize how much time I waste on you? Too much."

Harry started to walk around the room.

"What do you want?" he mumbled; he wasn't really in the mood for this right now.

"Okay, I've been thinking about your little masquerade; maybe we can evolve it to something bigger. I… might've heard that you handled yourself pretty good against that Goblin-guy. Except for the fact that you wrecked an entire library taking him down, and you almost got yourself killed."

"Wait what? How can you…?"

Tony snickered. "Funny, isn't it? No technology works within the area of where your school supposedly is located; it stops to function and is rendered useless. But I've another solution."

Harry bit his own lip in anger. "So what, you've been spying on me?

"Yeah kinda."

" _What?_ " Harry said loudly but quickly covered his mouth to not wake up Hermione.

"Hey, it took me months to get past whatever scrambles all electronic devices known to man; phones, computers, cameras – you name it. _But_ I managed to get a little help from a mythological friend of mine and I managed to get past it… and had a guy on the inside to plant some tiny micro-camera on your suit and in your dormitory; so small you won't even notice."

Harry scoffed. "Great, so now you know everything about my life."

"Do I seem like a stalker to you?" Tony said. "But yeah, pretty much."

"Turn it off."

"Can't. Won't."

" _Turn it off._ "

Tony sighed.

"You really want to do this?" he said. "Over the phone? Kid, I've got guests waiting…"

"And I have the rights for some personal space!" Harry yelled.

"Trust me, I only check every now and then, and it's not fun to pull the screen up and see you two sucking each others faces off", Tony added a nervous laugh.

Harry was quiet for a while. He was angry beyond comprehension, that Tony would just do this without his knowledge. Did this mean he knew about the Wizarding World?

"How much do you know?" he finally asked.

"Enough", Tony answered.

Harry took a deep breath and exhaled.

"Turn it all off. _Now._ "

"Alright, fine. There – done. Don't blame me for this."

Harry slowly nodded. "And never call me in the middle of the night again. _Never_ ", he hung up and threw the phone to the side on his chair while walking back to bed.

Hermione was still out like a light after the eventful day. He took off his contacts and laid down beside her under the warm cover, with his arm holding her tightly.

He gave a sigh of relief, to finally be able to sleep.

"Who was that?" she suddenly mumbled.

She must've heard him yelling.

"What? Oh, just that jerk Tony Stark. Sorry if I woke you up."

He couldn't tell if she was smiling, but he was pretty sure she was.

"It's alright", she closed into him and kissed him gently on the cheek.

With one last look on her blurry face he quickly fell asleep.

 **AUTHORS END NOTES**

 **Here's a fun fact for you: in every story I've written I named Hermione's parents Henric and Matilda Granger, but I did not want to**

 **bring that into this story, so I had to dance around not giving away their first names. I still wish J.K would at least reveal their names, but that's highly unlikely.**


	19. Chapter 18 - Specter of the Goblin

Soon, they returned to Hogwarts again after the Holidays during which Harry let Hermione study the device he'd brought back from Jade's hideout.

"Any good news today?" Harry asked as they were heading towards their first class for the day."

"If you'll consider it good news", Hermione said. "I found out, that it's a tracking device. It tracks people based off their genetic code."

"Uh, and that means?" Harry dodged a couple of first-years almost running into him.

"For goodness sake Harry, it means people can easily find you using only a drop of your blood or a strand of hair! If Jade have more of them, there's no wonder how Ron found out who you were."

"Well there's one hell of a security risk."

"Says the one using a map basically doing the same thing", Hermione said with a smile.

"Yeah well, I don't try to blow people up."

After a long day of work, they headed towards the Great Hall for dinner through corridors filled with rushing students.

"Hey, no running in the corridors", Hermione warned a group of first-years in Gryffindor as they ran by, but they came quickly to a halt. "If I see you running again, I'm taking points away. Understood?"

The group of first-years nodded nervously before they were on their way again.

Harry snickered.

She looked at him with a slight annoying look. "What?"

"Nothing. I usually just don't catch you in the prefect-act."

She shook her head as they were heading towards the exit of the corridor. "Oh, stop it."

Harry couldn't help but grin. But his grin slowly died away when he suddenly felt that something was wrong. He stopped in his tracks and quickly looked around him.

Hermione grabbed him by the shoulder. "Trouble?"

It was something big, heading this direction. But where?

"Harry?"

He turned around towards the windows, and the roof. It was coming from above.

"Get out! Get out now!" he pushed Hermione out of the door-way as the roof came collapsing down.

He reacted in split-seconds, webbing a couple of people out before they could get hit by the debris.

With a loud crash, something huge landed in the dust.

"It's going to be fine", Hermione said as she was helping the people up from the floor.

The mask and gloves had to make do; he had no time to change into full costume right now.

He looked over his shoulder at Hermione, who stared back at him, terrified.

"Get out of here!"

She quickly nodded and hurried away with the smaller group.

"Okay, big guy let's…"

He looked at the big creature, who ominously towered above him as it stood up. It was bigger than a half-giant, with green spiky skin covering it's body and engulfed in flames.

"Oh, wow. I'm actually so scared right now that I can't even finish my sentence."

A big, flaming fist swung at him, which he narrowly dodged and zipping himself to the wall. He tossed his shoes and socks to the side along with his robe.

"Hey do you by any chance have marshmallows?" he dodged another punch, breaking a hole into the wall. " _What?_ _Now_ you're telling me you forgot marshmallows?"

As he dodged a few more swings, he stripped down his clothes to his full costume.

"Well, I'd love to stay and chat but, I have things to do."

He threw himself at the monster with a punch ready, only to getting swatted away out of the window by the back of a hand. As he was falling, his reflexes took hold and he swung his way to a tower, with the flaming creature following him.

Fireballs flew above his head as he dodged them. "Whoa! I can feel the heat from here!"

Landing on the tower, he quickly looked around him. But there was not a sign of neither flames or a big green creature.

"What? How did he…? I swear he was right behind me."

Harry climbed around the tower, desperately looking for the creature.

"Please, I'm not going to hurt you. Me and spicy things really don't go along that well."

Out of the darkness, the monster suddenly threw itself at him before he could react, taking a part of the tower with it.

Helplessly, he flew through the air while desperately attempting to struggle himself out of the hold the monster had of him but to no use.

"Potter…" the monster snarled in a voice close to something that resembled a volcano rumbling, while they were diving to certain death.

Harry was paralyzed, staring back at the creature in shock; it knew his name.

With all his strength, he finally managed to punch his way out, making the creature impulsively throw him right through the Great Hall's roof.

In panic, as Harry was falling, he attempted to break the fall but his web-shooter's only made a clicking noise. His panic rose as wooden splinters were raining around him.

"No, no, no. Not now, not…"

He fell straight down into one of the tables with a loud crash, breaking it in pieces. The pain that came along with it, was sudden and paralyzing. He didn't know how he was still alive, or even able to move his limbs.

Somewhere in the background he heard the monster landing. Along with it came screams and people running for their lives.

Harry looked at one of the shocked students, who stared at him with frozen expressions. "Hi. Mind if I take a nap? I could use it."

He groaned from the pain as he stumbled himself up on his feet. Something was definitely broken – yup, something was broken.

Slowly he began to approach the monster with his entire body throbbing with pain, with every nerve screaming in agony.

"C'mon", he said between a few pained breaths. "I can…", he stumbled a few steps up to the monster, preparing himself for the fight. "I can do this all day."

He coughed up blood in his mask. "What are you waiting for?"

The pain was starting to take its toll on him, because he lost his balance and fell on all four, but got up again pretty fast.

"Let's go."

He landed an uppercut, a jab and dodged one of the giant arms swinging around at him.

"Body… broken", Harry mumbled while jumping around the monster, trying to get in as many hits as he could even if it didn't leave a scratch.

"Potter is weak", the creature chuckled.

"I'm sorry… ugh, are you trying to talk? Because all I'm getting is this noise…"

An arm slammed right into him, knocking him into a wall and down on the floor with a thud.

"He's getting killed! You've got to do something, please!" a voice yelled in the distance.

The monster grabbed him with his flaming hand, lifting him up in the air.

"Finally…", the monster whispered.

While the fire was licking through the suit, he attempted to struggle free. "Can we talk about this…?"

"No talking."

The green creature tossed him into the wall behind him so hard he finally blacked out.

 **AUTHORS END NOTES**

 **Only** ** _you_** **can prevent Spider-Man fires!**

 **If you didn't know who that was who just kicked Harry's butt, that's the Ultimate Goblin from the Ultimate Spider-Man comics.**

 **But who he is? I'll let you guess. It's not who you think it is.**

 **In fact, there's a lot more references thrown around the entire story - mostly Marvel related. See if you can find them.**


	20. Chapter 19 - Only Fools Are Heroes

Somewhere, in the distance he heard a voice talking, but he couldn't understand anything that was being said. He felt broken, bleeding and in lots amounts of pain.

"Is he dead?" he heard a sudden voice above him.

For a moment the darkness took him again, before he started to lift from the floor. Behind the broken mask he spotted Hermione's face.

"Get him outside now! Hurry!"

Yet again he blacked out, and the next moment he woke up he heard the sound of roaring jets while he was moving at a very fast speed; almost as if he was flying.

The darkness took him for a good while, but slowly morphing into a blinding light. Out of the light three human-shaped shadows came, walking towards him where he was lying on the ground.

"It's okay, Harry. You can let go now", a woman's voice told him.

The voice filled him with peace and happiness. He would never have to worry about anything else anymore. He would be free from all his responsibility, and never ever again have to suffer or see others suffer because of him.

His parents and Uncle Sirius looked down at him, all of them smiling with comforting face expressions.

"You made us proud, son", James Potter slowly nodded. "Prouder than you'll ever know."

Harry swallowed, slowly embracing the warm feeling of being at peace with himself and everything else.

Uncle Sirius crouched down beside him, grabbing his hand. "You can fight it, Harry. I know you can. You're stronger than you realize. Fight it!"

The warm feeling got overwhelmed by the courage to fight back, no matter what, and the bright light died out.

"Fight it!"

He pulled Harry up, and in the next moment he was lying down on a bed, tucked in under a cover. His suit – beaten up, scorched and ruined – was hanging on a chair.

His web-shooters were also gone. The room he found himself in was entirely made out of concrete, like a bunker of some sort. It was a pretty big room, with a corridor leading straight out of here.

Maybe that corridor was his best chance of getting some answers as to where he was.

As he tried to move, he gave a yell from the pain. Immediately Hermione came running into the room, almost throwing herself over him.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. You just came back from the dead for a few hours ago."

Tears were still on her face. She looked exhausted.

"What – what happened?"

Hermione crossed her arms and sniffed. "Mr Stark saved your life."

"He's here?" Harry said loudly.

"Yes, Harry. If it weren't for him…", tears began to roll down her face again and she wrapped her arms around him.

Harry slowly stroked her hair while she was sobbing. "I know."

"Yeah, you can thank me later", Tony entered the room while chewing on a burger. "It's not exactly easy to put together a make-shift working space in the middle of god damn nowhere. And ordering food-delivery out here is… just – wow!"

Hermione slowly let go of him.

Harry frowned in confusion. "What? You made this place just…"

"Just to save you? God no!" Tony chuckled. "I had it built for a few months ago – after I found out where your school is apparently located. Yeah, so that's the story."

"And that green creature? One of yours?" Harry mumbled.

Tony scoffed with an insulted facial expression. "Ha, no."

"It ran away", said Hermione. "I don't know why."

Harry pulled himself out of bed. "In that case I have to stop it", he groaned as his body failed to hold him up and he fell down on the floor on all fours.

"Oh, I wouldn't do that if I were you", said Tony as he took a sip out of a cup of coffee.

"I already told him that – apparently he _wants_ to get himself killed", Hermione sighed as she helped him up on the bed again.

Harry looked at her.

"I'm right here, you know."

She stared back at him with a stern look. "Harry, you can't just go back into a fight in your condition. You may have a bit of self-healing but that doesn't mean you're invincible."

Tony threw what was left of his burger in a trash-can.

He took a few steps towards him. "She's right, buddy. Only fools like us are heroes, the greater fools are those that believe they can use their power to trample over people without power."

Harry glanced up at him. "And what do you believe?"

Tony shrugged. "I believe that… there's a hero in all of us – a spark of hope to keep us alive. Even if things go to hell, we just have to push through and do whatever it takes to get through tough situations. And I need that from you right now. Can you do that – Spider-Man?"

Harry slowly nodded. "Yeah."

After Harry had a bit of food and rest, Tony went ahead and showed him the project him and Hermione had been building on while he was out.

"So here it is", Tony uncovered a table with a perfectly new suit. "We took the same designs from your previous suit and merged the fabrics with a thin layer of gold-titanium alloy covering your whole body. I should add that it's reinforced with silicon infused-steel. And so that you don't have to sew the damn thing up every time, we made it use an advanced Nano-technology. Nothing too fancy, but it'll do."

Harry stared at him completely baffled, trying to understand what he'd just said. "What…? Sorry – English?"

Tony just stared back, with the expression of someone who's Christmas present wasn't good enough.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Harry's not the _science_ type."

Tony sighed.

"Basically your suit take most of the beating for you, and it's self-repairing. Should save you a couple of hospital-bills."

"Wow. That's _all_ you had to tell me", Harry shook his head.

A loud sudden beeping came out of nowhere.

Tony looked down at his wrist. "Don't worry – it's me. Alarm at the Avengers headquarters. Well, kids you're on your own for now – big trouble. Pleasure working with another genius", he quickly shook Hermione's hand before heading towards the exit.

Hermione blushed.

"What, you're leaving us now?" Harry said in half panic. "Are you just gonna leave hundreds of people to die?"

Tony turned around.

"I'm not leaving anything. You wanted technical support; and now I'm gone", his suit came straight crashing through the roof, wrapped itself around him and in the next second he flew out the same way.

Harry stared speechlessly at the spot Tony had been at for just a second ago. Finally he looked at Hermione, who was still blushing with her hands covering her mouth.

"He called me a genius", she whispered.

Harry sighed, shaking his head.

Harry got into the new suit, swung away with Hermione out of the bunker, and put her down outside the Great Hall.

People were still repairing the place after his fight with the burning creature.

"Well, here's your stop."

"Thanks, Har… – Spider-Man."

"Sure."

Harry swung outside and up high by the towers; he needed to find that thing before it hurt anyone else.

A few hours away from midnight, he finally gave up on his search and returned to the Gryffindor-tower.

Hermione wasn't there, probably still at the library. He waited for her in the common room by the fireplace.

During the first hour he didn't worry too much, but after another hour he started to wonder where she'd run off to; surely the library had closed by now.

When the third hour had gone, he ran out of patience.

"Hey Neville, know where Hermione is?" he looked over his shoulder at Neville, sitting by the window with Seamus and playing Wizard's Chess.

"I thought she went to the library", Neville said, looking confused. "Didn't she say anything?"

"No. Seamus?"

"I thought she'd be with you", said Seamus.

Harry got up from the couch. "I'll check the library."

Yet again, he found himself outside in the snow in his suit, anxiously swinging his way towards the library.

He broke his way in through the window, but no one was there. He checked everywhere; her dormitory, the bathrooms, every possible classroom, and even outside.

Harry returned without his suit on to the common room.

"Any luck?" Seamus asked.

"No sign of her", Harry said, pretending to be out of his breath. "I've checked every floor. It's like she's completely gone."

"Maybe she's in the Astronomy Tower", said Neville.

"Then why didn't she tell me?"

Ginny came half-running down the stairs. "Who's gone?"

"Hermione", Harry mumbled.

Ginny looked at him without saying a word.

"She…", Ginny sighed and crossed her arms with a guilty look on her face. "I should've told you. She just wants to be alone for a while; she's in the prefect's bathrooms."

Harry became a bit nervous, almost panicking over why that was.

"What? Why?"

Ginny inhaled deeply and exhaled. "I don't know, Harry. She's not really feeling very well."

"She's sick?"

"No."

One look from Ginny was all it took, and Harry understood what was happening. He felt angry, betrayed.

"She's dumping me, isn't she? After all we've been through?"

"I don't have the right to tell you that – you should talk to Hermione about it."

Harry spent the night awake in his bed, staring up at the ceiling with an empty feeling inside of him.

The first thing that happened the next morning was Hermione rushing towards him in the Great Hall. She seemed to be in a lot of distress.

"Oh, so now you've decided to show up!" Harry sneered as he got up. "Do you mind telling me what's going on with you?"

"Not now", she pushed her way past him.

Harry didn't understand a thing. What was it he'd done wrong?

He grabbed her arm to stop her. "What do you mean? I thought you loved me. I love you, you know that right?"

"Please don't make a scene", she gave him a pleading look.

He noticed a couple of faint bruises on her face along with an almost invisible black-eye.

"Can we talk about it outside then?"

Harry noticed how much attention they'd drawn to them, with most people staring at them or whispering to each other.

Hermione slowly nodded and they walked outside to a less occupied corner.

"So what's going on with you?" Harry asked.

"You do very well know what's going on", Hermione whispered.

She seemed almost afraid of him as she backed into the corner.

"What? Did I hurt you in some way? Is this about Spider-Man again?"

Hermione just stared at him with a cold look on her face.

"Yes. You hurt me _and_ my feelings for you", she mumbled. "I don't know if I want to be close to you."

"What?" Harry exclaimed. "What are you talking about?"

He felt even more confused than before. How had he been hurting her? Had he been walking in his sleep?

Hermione wiped a couple of tears from her face.

"Don't pretend like you don't know", she whispered.

"I really don't, Hermione. What is going on?"

"I'm breaking up with you", she sniffed. "I don't know if I can be with someone that doesn't respect me."

"Why?" he felt tears rolling down his face and he couldn't stop it. "If this about Spider-Man, I can take a few weeks break or longer!"

Hermione changed her tone completely around and suddenly became very angry and raised her voice; she finally snapped.

" _No_ , Harry! This is about you! Don't you remember last night? You met me in the library, and when we went to the prefect's bathrooms together and it was supposed just the two of us? When _you_ pushed me towards the wall against will and tried to pull my clothes off with force? I even told you to stop, instead you hit me. Do you know what they call that? It's called abuse! I had to jinx you to get free!"

Harry had completely lost himself and didn't understand what she was talking about.

"I was waiting on you in the common room all the time. I would never…"

"Just so you know, I'm informing my parents and professor Dumbledore about your behavior. Because I see now that the person I fell in love with is no longer here; you're dangerous."

She tried to push her way past him, but he grabbed her arm.

"Listen to me, Hermione. I would never do anything to hurt you. Out of all people, you should know I'm not that kind of person!"

"I don't care. What's done is done", she pulled out of his grip.

"Can we be friends at least? Like before?"

She looked at him with a heart-broken gaze. "I don't know. Maybe when things go back to how they used to be. For right now I want you to leave me alone."

She pushed her way past him, into the Great Hall and left standing there.

 **AUTHORS END NOTES**

 **Excuse me for the language in these notes.**

 **Now when I look back on this story, Hermione is a god damn drama queen haha.**

 **But I needed to split them apart without going the "oh no the villain blackmails me to be a bitch"-route, a.k.a Spider-Man 3.**

 **There's actually someone causing this chaos, and Hermione believes it's Harry. She's smarter than this, since she knows Harry would never hurt her, but I'd imagine being with** **Spider-Man would be one of the most coolest things ever but also super stressful. She basically underestimates him, and she's right to do so as Harry is reckless as Spider-Man.**


	21. Chapter 20 - The Last Web

After a depressing but otherwise normal day, Harry didn't hesitate one second to put the suit on to wash away his feelings. It helped by beating up criminals, but it also made him not be able to think clearly and caused him to break a few more bones than necessary.

He returned to Hogwarts when it was almost morning. As he swung and crawled his way up the tower, all of the pain and anger returned.

He was shaking from the cold as he entered the dormitory. The suit didn't protect him much against the elements; maybe he had to swing by New York and ask Tony for a warmer suit?

As he was about to take his mask off, the door opened. Quickly he jumped up to the ceiling above, sticking to the shadows.

Who he was looking at confused him at first; it was like looking in a mirror – it was him.

The other Harry went straight to Harry's trunk and slammed it open. He threw everything out on the floor until he finally picked up the Marauder's map.

Harry didn't hesitate one second, and jumped down behind his other self.

"I don't know who you are, pal – but that sure don't belong to you", Harry said.

The other Harry turned around, and started running. He dove right out of the window.

"Oh, c'mon."

Harry wasn't far behind, but his fake counter-part was nowhere to be seen. It was like he'd vanished in smoke.

"What? Where did he go?" Harry looked around like mad, climbing the tower. " _Where_ did he go? No, _seriously_!"

He buried his face in his hands, sighing aloud. "Well, that just figures."

The next few days, Harry spent keeping an extra eye out for whatever was going on. Maybe the person who'd broken into the dormitory had been Malfoy, or even Jade. Ron wasn't either entirely out of the question – even if he was still suck in the hospital wing.

His thoughts about the whole situations flew away as soon as he passed by Hermione in the corridor. She wasn't alone; she almost constantly had someone at her side, this time it was Ginny. Mechanically, his eyes got stuck on her as she walked past him and down the hallway.

It was bad enough that Hermione was furious with him over something he hadn't done, but it was worse with her friends seemingly guarding her from him.

"It's only a matter of time", a sudden voice spoke.

Harry looked over his shoulder, to see Neville stand there.

"She'll come around soon. You watch, Harry", Neville gave him an encouraging smile.

Harry didn't say anything and left.

Hours later Harry was heading down the corridor from his last class for the day. A couple of students rushed past him, some bumped into him.

There were some kind of commotion in one of the corridors.

He didn't get very far before he was stopped by a huge group of people, all standing around something.

They were all shouting, talking, whispering and pushing while teachers tried to keep them at bay the best they could. Harry slowly started to realize something was amiss.

Something was levitating in the middle, but he couldn't see what it was so he started pushing his way through.

"Calm down everyone!" he heard McGonagall shout. "There's absolutely no need to be alarmed!"

Harry got a glimpse of what seemed to be a body levitating in the air.

"Let me through!" Harry finally managed to get to the center of the mass.

In the air he saw a female body levitating, limbs hanging lifeless. Her face was covered by one of his spare masks. On the wall behind her, there was a crude message written in black ink:

 _I KNOW WHO YOU ARE_

His heart almost stopped. "Oh god."

Harry immediately grabbed the body and pulled it down, taking the mask off.

"Mr Potter, what are you doing? This area is out of bounds, you can't…"

Underneath the mask was Ginny. She was breathing. Unconscious, but alive.

Harry was confused. Was this a clue, or just a heartless threat?

"Hey, she's still breathing", Harry said over his shoulder.

Madam Pomfrey came rushing out of the mass of people.

"I need you all to step away", she said in a distressed voice.

But no one moved an inch, they just kept talking out-loud and staring. Harry looked around in the crowd after Hermione, but she wasn't anywhere to be seen. If anything, she'd be keeping the students in check.

Harry felt a slight panic rise; why wasn't she here? He glanced down towards the mask in his hand.

His eyes darted around the crowd once again, but he didn't see her. And the last person to be seen with her had been Ginny.

His heart starting beating quickly in his chest; he felt the sudden tingling feeling at the base of his skull and he knew something was off. There was no denying it, Hermione was clearly in danger.

Knowing that Ginny was in good care, Harry quickly found himself to the nearest exit.

Harry dressed up quickly and found himself looking around the school grounds after Hermione.

His spidersense led him to the library; he didn't see anybody in there. For a few seconds, he didn't hear anything, but as it drew closer he heard something coming his way very fast.

His spidersenses lit up like a Christmas tree and before he had the time to react, a missile flying into the windows caused an explosion and threw him across the room, leaving the library in flames.

Harry felt the pain in his whole body. He groaned from where he was lying in the shambles of books and wooden furniture.

"I told you, Harry" a voice yelled that sounded extremely like Ron, but still not. " _This_ is your fault! You will pay for everything."

He looked up, only too see the glider with Ron on it appearing above him, close to the ceiling. He was holding Hermione in a tight grip, who seemed to be unconscious.

"What did you do to her?" Harry got up on his feet, still with the pain aching in his bones. Luckily the suit had absorbed most of the impact.

"She tried to fight back, what can I say?" Ron smiled.

"Let her go – you don't need to do this."

Ron cackled. "Yes, I do."

With a roar from the glider's engine he escaped out through the window, with Harry right after him.

As Harry followed Ron out in the blizzard, they went between the towers, up over walls and finally, Harry landed on the tallest tower in all of Hogwarts: the Astronomy Tower.

Ron was hovering a fair bit above him.

"Ron, this isn't you. Put her down."

"No!" Ron roared back at him. "You robbed me of all hope I've ever had! You have no right to tell me what to do!"

"Ron, this is _not_ you! Whatever Jade did to you is messing with you!" he tried to latch webs onto Ron's glider, but he dodged it without much effort.

"You weren't there!"

Harry stared at him. "You don't think I know how this feels? To be abandoned? To have people you care about, die? I've been there Ron, and I can help you. Just give me a chance!"

"Shut up! You don't know how it feels! You got your powers by accident, _I_ was forced upon them because _you_ didn't think of looking for me!"

"I tried, Ron! Please, just put her down!"

Ron snarled at him. He seemed to hesitate for a minute, before he nodded.

"Okay."

Hermione fell out of his grip, falling straight down. "No!"

Without hesitating, Harry made a jump for her. Everything moved in slow-motion as she fell.

He grabbed her, and together they fell straight into the roof, and with a thud Harry landed on his back on the floor. Hermione stared back at him with a confused and frightened look.

"What happened? Where am I?"

"No time to explain!" Harry rolled away as the mini-gun started firing.

"Is that Ron?" yelled Hermione.

"Unfortunately, yes! Listen, I'm…"

One of the orange bombs landed beside them. In an attempt to escape, he zipped them towards the wall but he was too late before the bomb exploded and separated them.

Hermione landed safely by the wall; Harry crashed out of a window barely clinging onto the wall and throwing himself in again, kicking Ron off his glider.

"Get away from her!" he yelled.

Ron laughed as he quickly jumped back on the glider, firing missiles at him and missed, blowing up parts of the floor and the walls.

Harry flung himself around the room with the machine gun barely grazing him. He had to constantly make sure Hermione was out of harm's way, no matter what.

Bombs flew past his head.

"Hermione, run! Get out of…"

Ron landed a straight punch to the back of his head, knocking him down on the floor again. In an attempt of getting up on his feet Harry shot a web upwards, but Ron had him pinned down, gritting his teeth.

"Ron… snap out of it!" he punched Ron, kicked him back into the wall and webbed him to it.

He got free fast, but Harry kept punching him back into the same wall, keeping him at bay. Ron punched back, he dodged and another bomb was thrown, this time on the support-pillars holding the place up.

In the blink of an eye, Harry webbed the bomb but it went off and everything fell down except for Ron whose glider saved him.

It all went in slow-motion.

Everything came collapsing down. The debris flew right past him as he fell. He desperately reached out for her. He was panicking, and he saw the shock in her eyes while the ground drew closer.

He knew somewhere deep inside, that she wouldn't make it out of this.

With his line of web, he shot out a line towards her and let out a noiseless scream behind the mask.

It had to catch her, it had to catch her, please God let it catch her.

As they kept falling, he wondered if this is how it felt to be dying, seeing someone you love plunge down towards certain doom, everything you cared for being ripped away in an instant.

He felt the web connect, and without hesitating, he completely emptied the other cartridge to halt their movement.

Her body hit the ground with a thud. Quietly he dropped down beside her.

She didn't move. It felt like his heart had stopped when his mind told him she could very well be dead.

Shaking, he got her down from the web and fell down on his knees with her head in his lap.

She didn't breathe, she didn't move. No pulse, nothing. Her neck was broken. He had killed her.

Behind the mask he started to cry.

In anger he threw the mask on the floor and held her face closely towards his chest, shaking violently with tears bursting. He didn't know what to do.

She was dead because of him. She was _dead_ because of _him_. Him and his idiotic actions had caused this. _She was dead because of him_.

The words rang in his head and it only made him angrier. A loud maniacal cackling echoed down the tower walls.

He stopped crying and looked up above him. The cackling sounded again and it drew closer. No.

He put her gently down on the ground, grabbed his mask and stood up.

No, this was all that murdering maniacs fault. And he was going to pay. Pure hatred pumped in his veins.

He'd never felt such anger; it consumed him.

He put his mask on and crawled his way up in furious anger. Finally he threw himself against Ron, grabbing him with his hands around his throat and knocking him into a wall with all the strength he possessed, crashing them right through.

They kept flying uncontrollable towards the sky as Harry landed punch after punch in Ron's twisted face.

"You murderer!" Harry yelled at the top of his lungs. "How could you do this? _How_ could you murder your own friend? What kind of _sick_ freak are you?"

Ron didn't fight back, just laughed like mad at him. They flew into the clouds.

"It doesn't matter!" Harry broke one of the thrusters with a well-aimed stomp. "If she goes down, so do you!"

Ron's face suddenly stopped laughing, just smiling a very unsettling smile as Harry destroyed both thrusters. "Have it your way."

They started falling into a neckbreaking fall; the glider malfunctioned and flew past them.

Both of them were freefalling straight down towards the tower, heading towards a certain doom.

Harry kept punching Ron repeatedly with everything he had as they plunged to the ground at a deadly speed. "Fight back! Fight back, you coward! _Fight back!_ "

But Ron was just laughing at him; because he'd already won. They crashed down on the floor beside Hermione's body, but Harry kept punching in blind rage.

"You murderer! You… you…"

Slowly he stopped himself, staring down at the bruised and bloody face of his best friend, missing a few teeth and almost unrecognizable.

Ron gritted his broken teeth. "I won Harry. I won…", Harry landed a final punch, knocking him out.

"Shut up."

Stained in both his own and Ron's blood, Harry carried Hermione out of the building; an entire group of people were waiting outside.

McGonagall stepped out of the crowd. "Spider-Man! What happened? We saw the explosions, but…", she became silent as she saw Hermione.

They looked at him in shock as he walked – broken and crushed inside – through the snow, before slowly putting Hermione down. He kneeled down in front of her with his face on her chest, crying and shaking behind the mask.

Whispers and crying were spread across the group of people. He looked up at them.

"What the _hell_ are you looking at?" he screamed at the top of his lungs.

They just stared back at him, some confused while some were right out scared. Harry realized he couldn't breathe. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't breathe. He pulled his mask off and threw it in the snow.

While gasping for air, someone walked up to him and put their hand on his shoulder.

He smacked the back of his hand towards the person beside him. "Get away!"

In shock he realized it was Ginny; she stumbled away from him with a bleeding nose. She was just staring at him, as shocked as he was.

Everyone stared paralyzed at his face. Whispers and muttering spread through the crowd. He heard several of them yell his name in surprise. But hiding his identity was such a trivial matter right now.

With a heavy heart Harry went back in after Ron and threw in front of them. "Here's your Goblin."

He picked up Hermione's body over his shoulder and swung away to the hospital wing where he put her in one of the beds.

It didn't take long for McGonagall, Dumbledore and other students to gather around the bed.

Harry refused to leave her side – still in his suit holding his mask with an iron grip. Hermione's parents were brought in, and as soon as they spotted Hermione they broke down just as Harry had done; it was much more worse to watch it.

"What happened?" mrs Granger finally asked Harry with strands of hair and tears covering her face.

"Ron killed her", Harry whispered without looking her way.

"Why… what? Who are you?" mr Granger stared at Harry with a gaze that would kill if it could. "You're... that costumed man on the news."

Harry gave a painful chuckle. "Surprised? All I've ever done to Hermione is bring her harm."

He stood up, facing Dumbledore.

"This is all your fault. This is on you, and you know it damn well", he walked away with his back turned.

 **AUTHORS END NOTES**

 **Damn, quite a chapter huh? Well, as said I suck at writing fights but I tried my best. Well, now with Hermione gone, things will go in a direction you probably saw coming. Keep in mind, this story is already done as I write these notes, but I post a couple of chapters every day. That's the only reason I posted it on this site, because I know it's done.**


	22. Chapter 21 - At the Edge of Time

A funeral was held for Hermione at Hogwarts, she was buried under the big oak-tree beside the Black Lake. Aunt Petunia and Tony Stark attended to it, so did Hermione's parents.

Ron was imprisoned at a high security prison at the outskirts of New York City, courtesy of Tony Stark.

Harry found himself on his free time by Hermione's grave and just reflecting on the huge mistake he'd done.

He should've never dragged her into this to begin with. Never ever.

Days passed by; days became weeks; weeks became months.

He hadn't touched the suit in ages, and just lived with being as normal as he possibly could. Every day he looked at photos of her, and seeing how alive and happy she had been, made him wish he'd never got any powers in the first place.

His birthday arrived and he hadn't felt this alone for a very long time. What was left of the Weasleys came over for dinner to celebrate his 17:th birthday, except for Bill, Charlie and Percy.

"I am so, so sorry they couldn't make it", mrs Weasley said with a heartbroken look on her face. "They are busy working so hard these days. But they send their regards."

During the rather uncomfortable celebration during the evening, they all were gathered around the table with the TV on in the background.

"As we all know by now, there's another world hidden away from our eyes", said the Muggle news reporter on TV. "The Minister of Magic have spoken and we still have no reports regarding their mysterious acts. Furthermore, the figure known as Spider-Man seems to have connections to these people walking among us."

Harry noticed how Ginny glanced at him. No one else around the table but her knew who Spider-Man was.

The news reporter kept going. "We have no reports regarding his identity, although there's been wild speculation about this subject. Although we don't know Spider-Man's real identity, his motives are clear after last winter's incident. He captured a boy by the name Ronald Weasley…"

Harry kept eating his dinner and ignored the TV as much as possible.

After they had left around midnight, Harry was once again alone. He sat alone in the kitchen with his head resting on his arms, staring out through the window.

These days he'd never use his powers, although they somehow found their way to remind him of the horrible truth.

Aunt Petunia sat down in front of him. At first she didn't say a word, until she sighed.

"Harry, I can not imagine how it feels losing someone like that. But you have to try and find peace one day."

Harry looked up at her. "You're right. You don't", he went up from his chair and walked over to his room.

"Harry, _what_ are you doing?" aunt Petunia sighed.

Harry turned around and looked at her. "I don't know", he shrugged.

"Because it pains me to see you like this. Everyday, you're shut in your own world. I just want to see you happy again."

"You don't know anything", Harry let the words slip out of his mouth. He took a few steps closer to her.

"And what's that supposed to mean? Do you think it's easy for me seeing you absolutely crushed every time you walk out of that room?"

The sadness and loss was replaced by the same pure anger that almost had killed Ron.

"You don't have any idea what the hell you're talking about!" Harry yelled at her. "Do _you_ think it's easy for _me_? _I killed her! I killed her!_ I saw her neck break right in front of me! I tried to save her! I tried!"

Tears were bursting down his face.

Aunt Petunia stared blankly back at him in shock; she knew. A part of him didn't care, while another part silently cursed. Slowly she got up from her chair, stumbled forward and embraced him in silence.

The very next day, Harry decided he should meet the psychopath who once had been his best friend; he had to meet his demons sooner or later. He called Tony to take him there.

A few hours later, he sat face to face with Ron. His face had returned back to normal, but he didn't look at him with hatred anymore – his entire face reflected sadness and regret.

They were alone in a room with guards outside the door, while Ron were strapped down in a chair even if he didn't show any signs of violence.

"You look good", Harry mumbled.

"Yeah, it comes and goes", Ron nodded.

"I hope you understand why I'm here, Ron", Harry said.

Ron slowly nodded. "I think so. You're here to kill me."

"No. I'm not going to sink to _your_ level. Not ever", Harry said with a slightly raised voice. "Let me ask you: was it worth it? Was the pain and regret worth whatever you were trying to prove?"

Ron didn't answer. A couple of tears rolled down his cheeks.

"Anyway, you were on the news last night. You're a psychopath, Ron and everyone knows it."

"Oh, so you're the hero?" Ron sniffed and looked at him. "Of course you are. _Harry Potter_ – always the hero, and letting other people take the fall."

Harry stared at Ron for a very long time, until he decided to say something.

"You're alive, and you should be grateful for that. If I had to chose, you wouldn't be", he said. "I hope you rot in here, knowing every day of your life what you did. You don't _deserve_ happiness anymore. This was _your_ doing – no one else's."

Ron was silent and avoided eye contact.

"I need to know", Harry stared him.

"Know what?" Ron asked between his tears.

Harry stood up so quickly his chair fell over.

" _Why_ did you do it?" he asked, but Ron kept avoiding his stare. " _Answer me!_ " Harry slammed his fist into the table, making Ron jump.

"I don't know", Ron mumbled.

Harry had lost his patience. He grabbed Ron violently by his collar across the table.

"Do you have _any_ idea what I have to suffer?" Harry screamed in his face. "I have to watch her die _over and over_ again in my head, every single day! Do you get it? She's _dead_ because you think the world owes you something. Guess what, it doesn't! You _killed someone_ because – why?"

Ron started bawling. "I loved her, Harry. I loved her! But I never would've her, you or anyone else because of it. The powers I got… they messed with my head, made me do and think things out of my control, but I promise you that I would never…"

Harry threw Ron along with the chair he was sitting on, across the room and crashing into the wall.

Within seconds, security came rushing in along with Tony.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Tony yelled.

"I'm going home – on foot", Harry gave Ron a last stare before walking out.

Returning from Hogwarts for summer went as fast as it took to go back for the final year, but he didn't know if he could do it. But he found himself by her grave the first moment he got.

The seventh year passed on, with Jade as their potions teacher and Harry hated Dumbledore for letting that freak still set his foot in Hogwarts.

As autumn passed, Ginny broke up with Dean and after some time she got together with Harry. It took time of course, but aunt Petunia had been right; he had to find a semblance of peace. Even if he would never forgive himself about what had happened, he knew Hermione would want him to be happy, or at least try to.

The snow started falling again and covered the tombstone in a white, sparkling cover once more.

Even in storms and blizzards he found himself by the grave, staring down at her grave.

Footsteps approached behind him on a mildly bright day. He turned around, only to see Tony approaching him.

"I'd thought I would find you here in the cold", Tony seemed unusually serious. "I know how hard this must be, kid. I've lost people in the past too, but to stop living is something you shouldn't do."

Harry didn't answer.

"No sightings of Spider-Man in months; London is in chaos."

"I'm sure you got it covered", Harry mumbled without looking at him.

"Yeah, but we need you out there, kiddo. Losing the love of your life is a heart-breaker, I know, but you have to move on."

Harry looked at him.

" _How_ do you move on?"

Stark shrugged. "You move on when your heart finally understands that there is no turning back."

"That's something Dumbledore would say – he'd put you up to this didn't he?"

"I don't think I'm allowed to say."

Harry scoffed. "If you're here to make me talk to him, you can walk away now."

"It's all up to you. When you're done here, of course. Maybe it can give you some closure."

That evening Harry decided to see what Dumbledore had to say was worth his time or not, even he'd rather not talk to the person who had failed to protect yet another of his students.

"Hello, Harry", Dumbledore said in a somber tone as Harry sat down in front of him. "It took some convincing to get you here."

Harry didn't say a word.

"Ever since this tragic evening occurred, I've seen less and less of the red and blue figure. Shame; I started to find a liking to him."

Harry raised his eye-brows. "Is that so?"

"Harry, I cannot imagine the pain you're going through right now, but there might a way to ease it."

"How? By being Spider-Man I got Hermione killed, and you did nothing other than watch me and Ron try to kill each other. Don't tell me I'll feel better if I put that suit on again, because there's _nothing_ that can fill the gap she left behind."

A smirk formed in the corner of Dumbledore's mouth. "Nothing?"

He put down something resembling an old watch on the table in front of him; a time-turner, but it looked like it had been tampered with.

"Where did you get that?" Harry exclaimed.

"Originally, it was a modified time-turner – confiscated. It took me a very long time to obtain it from the Ministry – and a lot of pressure from my side. But whatever you do, Harry. Do _not_ tamper with time itself too much; modified time-turners can be dangerous, but I'm certain you're already aware of this fact."

Harry slowly shook his head. He was trembling in his entire body from both excitement and fear over what he was about to get himself into.

Dumbledore did a smaller grimace. "Well, at least now you're aware of the danger. You can go now, I'm sure you have other things to attend to."

Harry grabbed the time-turner and rushed towards the exit, up to the Gryffindor tower. It didn't take long for him to fully suit up and load up the web-shooters, and finally climb up to the top of the Astronomy Tower.

He held the time-turner in a shaky grip while turning it.

"Should be enough", he mumbled, but then the thought struck him: what if he could get Hermione completely out of harm's way?

He kept turning the time back even further, to the day he'd gotten his powers. A sudden light-blue bolt flashed from the time-turner, right there in his hand.

He assumed it was normal with modified time-turners and let it keep turning time back while he waited for the months that had passed ever since to fly past his eyes in mere seconds.

More bolts emerged from the turner, striking out into thin air even more violent than the first. But the time didn't stop. He paniced. It kept going and going; he saw decades at Hogwarts pass by and finally an explosion of blue light surrounded him, blinding him.

For a moment, it felt like he was falling, until he found himself on solid ground.

Harry could finally open his eyes, but everything around him had changed. Hogwarts wasn't anywhere to be seen.

He was in the streets of London. Ahead of him but not far away, seemed like an injured man lying in the snow. Another man was running in the opposite direction, and instead someone ran towards the injured man to help out.

Not having much of a choice, Harry quickly ran over to see what he could do. He threw himself on the ground beside the man, only to phase right through him with his knee.

"Sirius? Sirius!"

The person who came to help was _him_. Harry sat as paralyzed, watching the entire scene appear before his eyes.

His past-self yelled out for help, but no one came. Harry felt helpless, only being able to watch his uncle die when he had the means to save him.

The younger Harry called for an ambulance, and soon help arrived. His younger self sobbed while he in a desperate attempt tried to stop the bleeding. Harry didn't remember any of this, only a blur involving a lot of crying, screaming and a few words Sirius had told him.

"H-harry, listen to me", Sirius wheezed during his last breaths, holding the younger Harry's hand in a tight grip. "I want you to look after your aunt and friends for me, okay? I want you to take good care of them."

Harry's younger self cried but nodded.

"You're a strong person, Harry. No matter what anyone else tells you", Sirius coughed up a lot of dark blood.

The medics started gathering around them.

"I don't have much time, Harry. Just remember what I told you: with great power comes great responsibility. You have to remember that, you have to…"

Harry himself was crying behind the mask as his uncle stopped breathing.

But again the blue bolts emerged from the time-turner, dropping him into another location. He stood in a house, staring at the back of a grown-up man.

"I really don't have a choice. I can't watch a friend suffer", the grown man said to a pregnant red-haired woman standing in front of him.

Harry got a better look of the two people. It was his parents.

They didn't seem to notice him, or even see him.

"So instead of taking care of your family, you decide to leave for work because, why exactly?" Lily said in an angry tone.

"You know how it is, Lily. Arthur needs my help with that project of his. His life depends on it, the disease is killing him."

Harry was once again ripped from the spot he stood in, and appeared in another. This was almost too much to take in; seeing all of this at the same day was the worst feeling he'd had since Hermione died.

Harry found himself yet again staring at his past self, with Hermione at his side, tinkering with the web-shooters in his room.

"Slowly the chip in and just turn it a little bit to the right, Harry. Just a little."

Hearing her voice again was strange, he'd almost forgot how it sounded like.

She stopped him from tinkering too much with the shooters. "No, no, no. If you turn it too much, it'll blow up in our faces and ruin everything we've done so far."

"Okay, okay! Maybe a warning next time?"

Harry went up a few steps and looked at her. Slowly, he tried to touch her but his hand went right through. He bit his lip and backed up.

The location changed, this time it was in a dimly lit room. Wilfred Jade and Arthur Weasley were gathered around a table. Harry couldn't believe his eyes; Jade and mr Weasley worked together? But mr Weasley's eyes were almost foggy, showing no emotion and just staring into the wall.

"How long does it take until I get powers?" a voice asked in the background. "I'm tired of waiting around."

Harry didn't even see the third person, who now stepped out of the dark. It was Malfoy.

"The serum only reacts to Weasley's genes, Draco. Without him it's worthless. It should take its effects soon and hopefully we can re-create them."

"We've waited for weeks!"

"Having a grudge against somebody, Draco?" Jade said with growl. "Is it Potter?"

"Who else would it be? I want to get rid of him and that filthy little mud-blood of his for good!"

Jade raised his eyebrows, but didn't say anything.

"I'll be damned if the person who put my father in Azkaban isn't dead before…"

A sudden explosion of blue lightning blinded Harry and left him in complete darkness like someone had turned the lights off.

 **AUTHORS END NOTES**

 **Okay, so I took some liberties with the whole time turner thing. It's modified by someone - possibly breaking several rules in the wizard world - to be able to travel anywhere in time.**

 **I'm pretty certain time turner's in canon can only bring you back a few hours into the past - something like that.**

 **And yes, the time turner's were destroyed during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries but who's to say someone didn't steal a time turner and tampered with it beforehand?**


	23. Chapter 22 - The Day When Time Broke

For a moment it felt like he hovering in mid-air, until a surge of energy pulled him down. He was lying down on something soft.

He tried to move, but it was like moving underwater; slow and heavy. It felt like he'd been hit by a truck.

Sitting up, he felt how his head was spinning.

He looked around him, but everything seemed distorted and broken in some sort of way; almost like looking at a broken mirror. All he could make out was that he was in an office of some sort. The whole room was dark, outside was dark with thunder roaring above them but it sounded more like a broken record. A man stood in front of one of the windows with his back turned.

"You're awake?" the man turned around.

Harry slowly nodded. He couldn't see the person clearly in the dark. The man took his hand hand helped him up. All he could see was a mask.

"This is your doing, isn't it?" the voice came from a female, who came right out of the shadows.

She also had a mask.

Harry jumped a bit.

"Calm down – he's just a kid. We've all been there, haven't we?" the voice came from another man with a mask, standing in the shadows.

"Reckless, that's what he is", another voice said.

Harry's heart almost stopped; he was surrounded by masked people.

"This is just some messed up dream, isn't it?" Harry. "I've finally lost it."

"I'm not sure if you're ready to find out", the man who'd helped him, said.

Harry shook his head. "No. But I have to."

The lights turned on, and what Harry saw was like looking in a mirror a dozen times over; the entire room was filled with what he assumed were _him_ \- _Spider-Men_.

They all wore different costumes, they all behaved differently, they all sounded like him and they all were _him_.

"This is nuts. This is completely nuts", Harry felt the panic rising as his eyes darted between the different Spider-Men.

"I suppose you could say that", the man in front of him said.

Harry took a long moment to take it in, but he still couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"I need to see your faces", he finally said.

Without questioning why, they all pulled off their masks – including Harry himself. A majority of them resembled him, others pretty much exactly the same, while others didn't look like him at all or were completely different people all together.

Harry's eyes stuck on what seemed like Hermione in the crowd. Slowly he started walking up to her.

The costumes they wore were identical. He stared at her, until he quickly backed backwards.

"Okay, you better explain what the hell this is", Harry sneered at one of his other selves.

"I think we all would like what exactly caused this", one of the Harry's said. "Why are we all gathered here?"

"What do you know?" Harry asked.

"Time is broken", said one of the other Harry's, wearing a futuristic costume. "There's a reason time travel of any kind is banned in 2099."

One of the Spider-Men walked up to him. It was one of the Ron's he had spotted in the crowd of Spider-Men. He wore almost an exact replica of Harry's own suit.

"It's strange", Ron said, looking at Harry.

"What's strange?"

"Nothing – just seeing the Harry I once knew in a costume."

"I'm not superpowered in your world?"

"No, you're dead."

"Oh."

The futuristic Spider-Man pushed Ron out of the way. "C'mon, don't tell him that. Anyway, we need a plan. We can't just stand here and argue all day – or whatever it is – we have to do something."

Harry took out the modified time turner. "I believe this thing is what caused this."

"Let me see it", one of the Hermione's said and grabbed it.

"You're an idiot for messing up", one of the Spider-Men said to him; it was Draco Malfoy.

"Back off", one of the Harry's said and pushed Malfoy away.

Hermione looked back at him. "This contains a time fragment. I've only read about these."

"A _what now_?" Harry asked.

"A time fragment – heavily modified gems. They are not easy to make, and if you do manage you can loop yourself out of existance", Hermione said, inspecting the time turner. "Somehow you managed to pull us all together in a single broken loop. Sadly there's only one way out of this."

Harry slowly nodded. "So you want me to create on of these stones and erase myself from history?"

A contained laughter was heard spread across the room.

"No, but I can send you back, stopping yourself from ever doing this and the loop should end and send us all back to our respective worlds."

Harry looked at her for a while, and for a moment he could feel the hard thud as her body hit the ground.

"You're okay?" she asked.

"Is it possible to prevent something else from happening?" Harry asked.

They all looked at him.

"What do you have in mind?" Hermione asked.

"The reason why this happened. I need to prevent Ron from killing Hermione."

Harry fell face first into the ground, in what seemed to be an empty corridor – still in his suit.

"Ow."

He grabbed the time turner, put it in his pocket and hastily changed clothes in a dark corner. As fast as he could, he hastily walked towards the Gryffindor tower. The dim morning light shone in through the windows as he traversed the castle, telling him roughly what time of the day it was.

On his way there, he bumped into professor McGonagall; she didn't look very happy to see him.

"Mr Potter, what have I told you about wandering about in the castle at this hour?"

"Sorry, professor. I have to find myself – I mean I got lost in the dungeons.

In the common room, Hermione was already awake, invested in a book as usual. She didn't notice him when he quickly passed by and went into his dorm.

Harry knew himself he wouldn't be there at this hour, but had to find him somehow. Luckily, the Marauder's Map was still in his possession.

As he grabbed the map out of his trunk, someone landed behind him. In that moment, Harry realized who it was he'd seen taking the map; it was his own doing.

"I don't know who you are, pal – but that sure don't belong to you", the present Harry behind him said.

Harry turned around, spotted himself in the suit, and started running towards one of the windows. He dove right through it, closing his eyes as glass flew everywhere.

And before the present Harry could catch up, Harry himself had already swung himself out of sight.

He heard his other self talking to himself at a distance:

"What? Where did he go? _Where_ did he go? No, _seriously_!"

Harry spent the rest of the time keeping track of his present self, barely leaving his suit and taking food from the Great Hall to keep himself going, and occasionally grabbing a newspaper or two when there was literally nothing going on.

As the days passed, Harry lived as Spider-Man and very rarely did he walk among other students. Neither could he keep himself from listening in on Hermione or any one else he happened to hear.

"This is ridiculous", said Hermione's voice as he listened in through the open window. "I can't keep avoiding him. Everytime he looks at me, I can tell how much he is suffering."

"You have to talk to him, Hermione", said Katie Bell.

Ginny slowly nodded.

"I don't know if I'm going crazy", Hermione sat down on her bed. "I thought I saw him on two different places at once today."

"Maybe it's best to forgive?"

Harry were still wondering who had assaulted Hermione. Was it another version of him, who'd accidently slipped in from another world?

Or was it just someone abusing a poly juice potion? Dumbledore had to have some slight idea.

Intending to find out, Harry sat off towards Dumbledore's office and snuck his way in. As Dumbledore was sitting by his desk, inspecting some sort of object, Harry landed softly in the chair on the opposite side.

But Dumbledore didn't seem to mind him. Harry cleared his throat, for Dumbledore only to quickly glance at him.

"Yes, Harry?"

"I need your help, sir", Harry took off his mask.

Dumbledore slowly looked up at him. First he didn't say a word and only inspected him.

"You've come a long way, haven't you?" Dumbledore put away the item in his drawer.

Harry felt confused how he knew this. "How do you know?"

"Anger and loss, they often arrive together", Dumbledore shook his head and sighed. "Please tell me, Harry. What happened?"

Harry told him in detail about what happened and when he was finished, Dumbledore didn't say a word. A couple of minutes passed until he finally said something:

"There's no denying someone is impersonating you. For what reasons I can not tell, but they are most certainly hostile. I will look further into this matter. As for your friends – saving them is only a matter of _time_."

Almost as if a light bulb had lit inside Harry's head, a spark of hope.

Of course. If he could get there in time to catch her, time would realign itself and the loop – in which probably every possible version of him were trapped – would never occur.

A sudden explosion shook the entire office. Harry exchanged looks with Dumbledore.

"I have to go. Thank you, sir."

Harry jumped out of the window and made haste towards the Astronomy Tower.

 **AUTHORS END NOTES**

 **Anyone confused by what was going on in this chapter: Spider-Verse is a thing in the Spider-Man comics.**

 **To put it simply, it's several different versions of Spider-Man. Be it Peter Parker or someone else, they are all**

 **Spider-Men.**

 **Or if you've played Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, it's more or less that but with every Spider-Man you**

 **can imagine.**

 **Why are they all in an office building? I don't know. I felt it would be a good place to have them at.**

 **Fun fact: Several different versions of this chapter were made. One where Harry ends up in a different dimension,**

 **meeting himself and Hermione as siblings (that version of Harry is named Barry. If you're a fan of the Flash TV show, I think you know where I was going with that); another where he meets them as well but also his parents in that dimension.**

 **The most interesting version I wrote was when he meets the siblings and they bring him to Dr Strange's mansion.**

 **Harry meets Dr Strange, but then I decided to scrap all of it. Just an interesting fact about this story :).**


	24. Chapter 23 - Sum Total

As Harry swung as fast as he could towards the top, he saw his present self flying out of a window and back in again. Time was running out. He wouldn't make it to the top. And all because he had been slacking off – again.

He was about to fail a second time. He couldn't bear the thought of watching her die _a second time_. He had to get in there a faster way. He could break in through the wall, it would be painful at this speed but much faster.

He let go of his webline, threw another one and pulled himself right towards the brick wall feet first. Combining speed and strength, he busted through the wall and fell tumbling down on the floor of the Astronomy Tower.

"That's one entrance…", he groaned as he stood up.

It was in that moment, the entire inner structure of the Astronomy Tower collapsed. Narrowly dodging the falling debris, Harry swung himself through it. He saw both him and Hermione falling towards him.

Yet again everything slowed down. He moved almost twice as fast; jumping, webbing and running along falling debris.

And in the next moment, he threw himself towards Hermione with open arms. His heart stopped.

Right as he caught her, the present Harry was simply gone.

Landing outside the Astronomy Tower with her in his arms, his entire body was shaking. He sat her down in the snow, feeling a strong sense of relief. What he'd just done had changed the entire course of history.

It felt unreal seeing her standing there, fully alive. He felt almost exhausted after everything he'd done to save her.

She didn't say anything, she just looked utterly shocked.

"I'm not…", he took a deep breath. "I'm not gonna lose you again."

"What?" Hermione uttered with a tiny voice.

In the background, students and teachers came rushing towards them.

"I went through hell to get here, Hermione. But I'm stopping this – now."

He swung back up to the top of the tower. Ron hovered in front of him.

"This ends now", Harry said, still shaking. "You ruined everything once – both for yourself and others."

"What are you talking about?" Ron growled between his teeth.

"It's time you realize that things maybe aren't what you thought, Ron. I went back in time to stop you from doing something you will regret! I saw _your dad_ , Ron!"

Ron slowly hovered down more to his level.

"He's alive?"

"Somewhere, yes! The formula only works with your father's genes! The same genes you have. That's why they captured you. And trust me, Ron – everyone were trying their hardest to find you."

Ron blinked a couple of times, like he didn't really believe what he was hearing.

"Ron, please. There's no need to fight. I finally learned what great responsibility means because of you. It was a harsh lesson, but I managed to come back and save the both of you."

Ron looked him in the eye – with what resembled the Ron he knew.

"I'm… I'm so sorry, Harry", Ron whispered. "I would never _kill_ any of you. I would never…"

Ron couldn't finish his sentence before the remainder of the roof was swept away by a giant explosion of fire. They both were sent flying through the air. Harry barely stopped his fall, tumbling down on a bridge.

He got up with a groan. The green burning monster stood right ahead of them.

"What is that?" Ron yelled.

"Potter!" the monster roared.

"You again?" Harry sighed with dismay.

"I've had enough of your antics, boy", down hovered Wilfred Jade, in a similar suit to Ron but seemed much more advanced. "This is where you'll die. Me and Draco are going to make sure of that."

Harry stared at the green monster; _that_ was Draco Malfoy?

"What have you…"

Before he could even question what was going on, Draco jumped towards him; in the same moment Jade went to attack against Ron.

Harry jumped out of the way, but got knocked down from the explosion of flames the impact created. He rolled out of the way from Draco's punch, latched onto his back and started beating the back on his head.

Draco caught on fire again, forcing him to jump off. Explosions went off above them as the two fought, almost like fiery fireworks.

"C'mon Malfoy! You don't want to do this!" Harry yelled to overpower the noise as he rapidly dodged Malfoy's attacks.

"Trust me…", the monster growled. " _I do_."

Ron and Jade flew straight pass them.

"I could use some help!" Harry yelled.

"I'm a little busy right now, Harry!" Ron growled.

In the next moment, Ron got thrown through a window – with Jade flying right after.

In an attempt to reach Ron, Harry attached a web to a wall but Malfoy grabbed him with his giant burning hand.

Fighting for his life, Harry tried to escape in panic.

"Stop – being – stupid!" he yelled, one word for each punch.

The fiery monster smiled, and threw him towards a wall with such force that he broke right through it. Landing on the ground, he saw Ron and Jade battling in the same room.

It was the boys' bathroom. Everywhere pipes and walls were broken and water flooded the floor.

An idea sparked in his mind; fire versus water.

"Hey! Green and gruesome!" Harry yelled while getting up on his feet. "I'm not done with you yet."

As expected, Malfoy crashed right in and landed in the water. The flames that engulfed the beast were finally put out.

Harry blinded the monster with webbing and kept punching it senseless. Blind, the giant monster swung its arms wildly without knowing what to hit.

A sudden explosion threw Harry off his feet and down on to the flooded floor. With broken bones and bleeding wounds, Harry tried to web his way to safety but a foot hit his face and knocked him down into the water again. His suit slowly repaired itself.

He spotted Ron lying in the water, not far away from him. Exhausted, Harry crawled his way towards him.

"I'm going to make it very clear, Potter. I did not want to do this", said Jade and kicked him again, turning him over on his back. "But you forced my hand."

He grabbed Harry's throat and pushed him under the water. Unable to breathe, Harry struggled but to no avail.

As his heart slowed down, his strength faded. He couldn't struggle anymore. Something lit up, and all he could see underneath the water was Jade getting knocked down.

A set of hands pulled him up from the water; it was Hermione. Gasping for air, Harry grabbed her and pushed her towards the exit. "What are you doing here? Are you looking to get yourself killed?"

"Is that how you thank someone who just saved your life?" she said with a raised voice.

"Hermione, you need to get out of here _now_. You can't be here!"

"And why is that? Do you think I'm incapable of defending myself?"

"I'm not losing you again! _Do you hear me_? I am _not_ going to let that happen!"

He pushed her out the door and webbed it shut. Next he limped over to Ron.

"Hey, Ron!" he yelled, shaking him violently. "Ron! Wake up! Wake up now…"

A giant hand hit him, sending him into a wall and down in the water with a splash. Slowly, Harry got through the pain and stood up on his feet, and started limping towards Draco. "You are starting to piss me off, Malfoy."

Draco just stood and looked at him, smiling – as if he'd already won.

"Like father, like son they say", Harry picked up speed. "And guess what? They are right –you're just as much of a scum as your father, Malfoy. And I'm going to get rid of you. Because with great power comes great responsibility, and right now my responsibility is to do what I have to!"

He ran right towards Draco, who only laughed at him.

With all of his strength he hit Draco square in the face with all of the strength he had left, then again and again and yet again until he landed the final blow, knocking him out of the hole in the wall and down to his doom.

Out of breath, Harry turned around just to see Jade throwing himself over him, knocking them both down to their deaths.

"You've lost it!" Harry yelled as they fell.

"I'm not about to let some _punk_ ruin everything!" Jade screamed at him.

Several times, Harry shot out a line of web to save himself, but missing everytime.

"This is how you'll die, Potter! You'll…"

Out of nowhere, a hand grabbed Harry and threw him him upwards – Ron.

Harry could finally latch onto the side of the wall and crawl his way back up again. Seconds later, Jade came flying up again with Ron in a tight grip and threw him back into the flooded bathroom, impaling him on a pipe.

Harry yelled at the top of his lungs.

Jade landed in front of Ron.

"You idiot. You could've joined us, but now you'll join your father instead", Jade roared. "I had such hope for you."

In a fit of rage, Harry jumped ontop of Jade, holding him under water while beating him bloody. Tears sprayed behind the mask as he kept punching.

"Harry…", a voice mumbled.

He stood up, looking at Ron.

"Get me down", Ron said.

He broke the pipe Ron was impaled on and leaned him against the wall.

"I don't think I can feel my body anymore", Ron whispered. "I can't feel much of anything."

"You're going to be okay, Ron."

"I don't think so, Harry", Ron look at him with tears running down his face. "Listen. I could never have asked for a better friend – ever. I shouldn't have attack you. I couldn't control it until you made me understand that with great power comes great responsibility. It sounds bloody stupid, but it's true. Every word of it."

His eyes closed shut.

"Ron!"

An explosion was heard and several footsteps were heard, splashing around in the water. A group of people stormed in, with a group of aurors and professor Dumbledore at the front.

Voices started yelling over each other; Hermione came running and fell on her knees beside Harry and Ron; the aurors seized Jade; professor McGonagall and Snape came rushing towards them and asked them to step aside.

Everything happened so fast.

"What happened? Ron? _Ron_?" Hermione yelled as Harry held her back. "Is he dead?"

"Stay back!" Harry said between his teeth.

"He was my friend too! Let me go!"

" _Hermione_. Listen to me!" Harry shook her. "He's not coming back."

 **AUTHORS END NOTES**

 **Did someone say "fun fact"? Alrighty then. Here's your fun fact: This story was originally going to**

 **have just 2 Goblins, but I ended up with 3. "That's too many", I hear you say.**

 **Yes, but I'd rather have 3 Goblins than having 3 different villains.**

 **Draco Malfoy was going to be a sort of Spider-Man, kinda like Venom but without the parasitic symbiote. But I**

 **felt that would make the story too long so I could explore Draco as sort of a corrupted Spider-Man**

 **(Superior Spider-Man, anyone?).**


	25. Chapter 24 - The Spectacular Spider-Man

Not even ten minutes after the fight, Jade had came to. The staff and aurors decided to question him in Dumbledore's office. Harry – as Spider-Man, with his injuries taken care of by madam Pomfrey, even if she'd rather have him stay in the hospital wing – was also asked to come with, along with the prefects.

Harry noticed how Jade gazed at him where he sat, chained against a chair.

"You surely understand the damage you caused this school and its residents", said Dumbledore to Jade.

Jade didn't respond. Harry knew he was stalling – just staring at Dumbledore with a blank expression.

"Tell

Harry felt the anger slowly building up inside him.

Feeling like he had put up with enough for one day, Harry quickly walked up to Jade. "I don't have the time for this."

"Calm down. The man may be a criminal, but he still deserves…"

"He doesn't deserve anything!" Harry punched Jade across the face. " _You_ hired this man to work here! Do you have any idea how much pain that caused everyone? Do you have a single _clue_ what this nutjob did to my life? _I went through time_ _and space_ to stop him from ruining everything! He wanted _me!_ Not Ron Weasley, not you – _me_! Everything he ever did was to get to _me_."

A few minutes went without anyone uttering a word. Tears were running down Hermione's face where she stood.

"The boy is smarter than you, Albus", Jade cackled. "Are you going to let that stand?"

"Quiet", Dumbledore ordered, and then looked directly at Harry. "I understand that you're upset, as I believe all of us are after this tragic day."

Harry simply crossed his arms, staring down at the floor.

"Is this true, Wilfred?" Dumbledore asked, looking at Jade.

"Yes. The boy's gene's are unique. I mean, look at him. He's already healed enough to walk properly", Jade said with a small malicious smile.

Dumbledore looked at Harry again. "You still need to put personal matters aside. As headmaster of this school I demand reasoning behind these events."

"Arthur Weasley", Jade said nonchalantly.

"What about him? He's been dead for over six months", said Dumbledore.

Jade smiled. "No. I arranged his death so no one would come looking around if he went missing. Ever since I worked with him all those years ago – trying to cure him – I knew he had something extraordinary in his blood. I created a formula that could unlock the true potential of it. But without his exact genes, the formula was useless! So I…"

"So you used Ronald Weasley – keeping him captured for days – torturing him and experimented on him", Dumbledore ended. "What about Draco Malfoy? Why exploit his current state? You very well know his father is in Azkaban."

"You really want to know it all, don't you Albus?" Jade smiled.

" _Tell him_ ", Harry grabbed Jade's throat.

He didn't need more stalling.

Jade rolled his eyes. "Draco served his purpose – for a while. I injected a prototype of the formula into him… he caught on _fire._ It did not come out as intended, but it was beatiful.

But with allies, the spider was powerful. I needed him weak. Draco drove a wedge between the spider and his friends. Yes, spider. Draco used polyjuice potion – disguised as you and did what he had to do."

Harry felt an scorching fury inside of him, but he managed to keep himself from punching Jade into the ground.

He exchanged looks with Hermione.

"But I am a man of science", Jade said. "Naturally, I injected a prototype of the formula in myself before testing it on anyone else. It gave me strength, speed and agility – but nothing close to what _you_ possess. I truly wish to know how you achieved something so unique."

Harry let go of him.

"I was bitten by a radioactive spider", Harry said without looking at him.

Jade scoffed. "Amazing. You should be dead."

"Where is Arthur now?" Dumbledore interrupted.

"The spider knows. He's been there before."

Harry frowned, but of course they couldn't see it behind the mask. Was he talking about the hidden room in the dungeons?

Arthur Weasley was indeed locked up in the back of the hidden room, where Harry didn't go last time.

Mr Weasley seemed half-dead, barely breathing. His skin was in an odd color almost greenish, probably after the experiments.

They brought him out and immediately sent him to St Mungo's for treatment. The days that came after, dealt with the consequences of the battle. Much to Hermione's discontent, classes were cancelled for the two upcoming weeks.

Not longer after, Draco was found alive, and was expelled from Hogwarts and fined a large payment fee for the damages and trauma he had caused.

Harry however thought his punishment wasn't severe enough – after all, he had worked together with Jade all along.

While Draco was expelled and sent back home, Jade himself was put in Azkaban for the rest of his life – even if the Ministry wanted him to be executed for his actions. Along with all of this, Spider-Man and Ron were declared heroes for saving Hogwarts from disaster, and Hermione as assisting hand.

After each head-line Harry read, following the battle, more and more he could forget the awful events he had witnessed.

He glanced down at the front head-line in the latest issue of _The Daily Prophet_ , saying: _Spider-Man and Ron Weasley saves Hogwarts from disaster!_

He and Hermione stood in the now repaired Astronomy Tower, looking out over the view and the snow fall after the first day of returning to their regular schedules.

"We still haven't talked about us", said Hermione.

"I wanted to give you time to process it all", Harry mumbled.

"I already have", she looked at him. "You did nothing wrong. I should've seen it coming. What I mean is: can you handle us being together, after what you saw?"

Quick, horrifying flashes of her dead body flew by in his mind. He would most likely remember the event that never happened for the rest of his life, but it felt so insignificant compared to the life he had gained back.

He took her hand. "Yes. That's why I came back."

She smiled. "You want to go back in? It's cold out here."

"Sure."

As they were about to enter the Gryffindor common room, Ginny almost ran into them.

"It's Ron. He's awake!"

"He is?" Harry asked, surprised to hear good news regarding Ron's state.

"Yes!"

Harry and Hermione quickly followed her to the hospital wing. And there he was, alive and breathing in one of the hospital beds and still heavily bandaged.

Both of them hugged Ron and proceeded to sit down.

"So what have I missed?" Ron asked, with a smile on his face for the first time in a very long time.

"Not much, really. You have probably heard everything by now", said Harry.

"I was talking about you two", Ron said. "Everything that happened – I can't understand how you sleep at night. Especially you, Harry."

"I don't", Harry said.

"I'm sorry", Ron looked at him with a troubled look.

"It wasn't you, Ron", Harry felt his throat getting dry just thinking about it.

Hermione grabbed his hand. "It's been though, but we get by", she exchanged looks with Harry.

"I don't even know how you managed to go back in time", Ron said and shook his head.

"I broke time."

"That sounds mental."

"It was."

Ron's attention turned elsewhere as his whole family came rushing into the hospital wing – including a recovered Arthur. His skin wasn't greenish anymore – in fact, he looked much healthier than Harry had seen him.

"Heavens, Ron!" mrs Weasley almost threw herself over Ron as she hugged him.

One after the other they all hugged Ron. Mrs Weasley proceeded to hug Harry, Hermione and Ginny as well.

"I would thank the man in person who saved the life of both my son and myself, but he doesn't seem to be around", mr Weasley said. "I don't suppose anyone knows where he is?"

"If I heard right from Ron, it was he who saved Spider-Man", Harry said, smiling at Ron.

Ginny looked at him with raised eyebrows. "You're sure he wasn't talking nonsense as usual?"

Both Mr and Mrs Weasley seemed very surprised.

Ron smirked. "Okay I'll admit I _helped_ him out a bit. _Mom_ – he was about to get killed!"

Mrs Weasley kissed him on his forehead. "Oh, my boy. My brave boy."

Ginny rolled her eyes.

"Do you know this spider… man?" mr Weasley looked at Harry.

Hermione looked concerning at Harry. Her facial expression screamed "does he know?"

Harry shook his head. "No, but he stops by sometimes. Maybe I can tell him you want to talk with him sometime?"

"Yes, that would be terrific!"

As everyone kept talking to Ron and each other, Harry couldn't help but feeling a bit disconnected from the world around him.

Maybe the whole time travel thing had affected him much worse than he'd initially thought.

Several months passed, and soon it was time to return back home. Nothing crazy had happened since the day that had changed everything.

As he sat up high above the streets of London, looking down over the city in his costume, the memories of that day – or whatever it had been – were still lurking around in his head.

Hermione's body at the funeral; the heartbreaking thud as she hit the ground; Ron being sent to prison; the endless wave of Spider-Men surrounding him.

Most of it had faded away – sure, but he could still remember several moments from that horrible event.

"But I know what uncle Sirius meant", he thought to himself.

Several police sirens blared down on the street as they passed by – finally. Harry stood up.

"This should be a happy ending, right?" he thought as he started swinging his way after the police cars. "I beat the villain, brought a family back together, and saved the girl", he flew past a police chopper and let go of the web.

"But it's never that easy. Being Spider-Man always comes with a price, and that day, that price was a steep one", close to street-level, he spun another web. "What keeps me going are uncle Sirius's words: with great power comes great responsibility. As tough as it gets sometimes, I have to fight on. And the best way to honor the people I love is to never stop being... your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man!"

 **AUTHORS NOTES**

 **IT'S NOT OVER YET.**

 **I felt like this was a good way to end it.**

 **Harry may understand what "great power with great responsibility means. The only reason he lashes out at Jade**

 **is because he pretty much killed Hermione indirectly and put Ron in jail for the rest of his life.**

 **Any human being would be exhausted and angry beyond comprehension in this situation.**

 **He has learnt his lesson. But what happened with the modified time turner? Who knows?**


	26. Epilogue - The End

A few months later, Harry and Tony met again, in Tonys' apartment in London. Both of them were sitting in very comfortable and expensive couches. The rest of the apartment looked just as expensive – Harry wasn't really surprised, just confused over why he would need such expensive furniture for an apartment he barely used.

"So, what is your decision?" Tony asked. "You've met the gang. They already know who you are and what you can do. Of course you'll still be going solo – but we'll contact you when your help is needed – and vice versa. Even if you're bit too young, but we've made an exception for you."

Harry didn't hesitate for a second. "A bit of backup wouldn't hurt."

Tony smirked. "No, it wouldn't."

He poured himself and Harry a glass of wine. "Your aunt, she probably would kill me if she found out I let you drink. But who the hell cares? _Technically_ you're old enough – in your world anyway."

He handed Harry his glass and they had a toast.

Tony smiled. "Welcome to the Avengers, _Spider-Man_ ".

 **AUTHORS END NOTES**

 **That's it. It's over :). Thank you if you have read all the way from the beginning to the end. I've spent several months writing this story, and I know it's far from perfect but I had fun writing it.**

 **Hope you had fun reading it.**

 **Oh, and a last fun fact: The epilogue was supposed to end with Harry passing on the webs to his daughter, but I didn't want to go that far into the future for several reasons.**

 **Thanks again for reading :D.**


End file.
